The Last TimeTurner
by Autumn Russell
Summary: Hermione/Lupin pairing. Time travel. Rated T. May change during later chapters. We are following Hermione's relationship with Remus Lupin, first as a teacher, then as a role model, then as something more and the obstacles the couple faces. Starts PoA
1. Diagon Alley

Hey everyone. Here is my first Harry Potter fanfiction (though I've done a lot of roleplay in my time) and it's a Hermione/Lupin pairing. I know it's been done to death, but I have been reading a lot of the other Hermione/Lupin fanfics and I just wanted to take the best of the best from those and put my own spin on things.

This is the second attempt of this story, because I got to chapter six and realized that I had left out a whole bunch of stuff and I was trying to incorporate Goblet of Fire into Prisoner of Azkaban stuff and yeah, it was getting bad. =S

Anyways, a big thank you to my current fans for reading and reviewing and putting up with me as I completely destroy everything I've already done:

CandyMaria92

StarReader2009

Aerianna Lupin

nette91

nyny421

Permenantly Lost in Thought

Will Love Ever Come

MapleandPhoenixFeather

Christina Akin

Wolfie22

Isabella97

This story starts during Prisoner of Azkaban to set up the relationship between Lupin and Hermione. I plan to focus a lot on this year to set up the mood but then I will jump over some of the later stuff. Please remember that this is a time-turner fic and that I am twisting things from Canon (so no relationship with Tonks and no Teddy, sorry).

I hope you like it.

Read, rewiew, enjoy. =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter One - Diagon Alley**

On the 31st of August, Hermione was dropped off at the Leaky Cauldron by her parents and joined the group of Weasleys for shopping. Harry, whom Ron knew to be staying at Leaky Cauldron since the incident with his aunt, was no where to be found, so Hermione and Ron were allowed to look for him while they shopped.

Hermione and Ron were getting along really well actually. It was something she really had a hard time understanding, but Ron (without his brothers, mother or teachers around) was actually much easier to deal with. Hermione grilled him mercilessly about his trip to Egypt, though she was rather put out when he didn't show equal enthusiasm towards her trip to France. After getting their books, they stopped at Florean Fortesque's for ice-cream, having had no luck in finding Harry in any of the shops they'd already been to.

They'd been there maybe ten minutes - Hermione had been trying to tell Ron about France again - when Ron spotted Harry through the crowd. "Harry! HARRY!" he yelled, waving his arms around.

Hermione broke off mid-sentence and looked where Ron was, breaking into a huge smile and waving when she recognized Harry's messy hair.

"Finally," said Ron, grinning at Harry as he sat down. "We went to the Leaky Cauldron, but they said you'd left, and we went to Flourish and Blotts, and Madam Malkin's, and -"

"I got all my school stuff last week," Harry explained. "And how come you knew I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Dad," said Ron simply.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Of course Harry had already got his school things. Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban three weeks ago, and Harry had been in Diagon Alley for two. Speaking of which... "Did you _really _blow up your aunt, Harry?" said Hermione in a very serious voice.

"I didn't mean to," said Harry, while Ron roared with laughter. "I just - lost control."

Hermione smacked Ron in the arm. "It's not funny, Ron," she said sharply. "Honestly, I'm amazed Harry wasn't expelled." The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery was a very serious law. Harry hadn't been in any life threatening situation with his aunt, _and _that was magic performed in front of Muggles.

"So am I," admitted Harry. "Forget expelled, I thought I was going to be arrested." He looked at Ron. "Your dad doesn't know why Fudge let me off, does he?"

"_Minister_ Fudge, Harry," Hermione chided.

"Probably 'cause it's you, isn't it?" shrugged Ron, still chuckling. "Famous Harry Potter and all that. You can ask Dad yourself this evening. We're staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight so you can come to King's Cross with us tomorrow! Hermione's there as well."

Hermione nodded, beaming. "Mr. Weasley talked it over with my parents and said it was no problem."

"Excellent!" said Harry happily. "So, have you got all your new books and stuff?"

Hermione nodded, shaking her head with a grin as Ron showed off his new wand. It was a relief to know that he wouldn't be a walking accident again this year, though Hermione had to remind herself that Harry and Ron were really lucky because of it. They might have ended up like Lockhart with no knowledge of anything.

"What about those _Monster Books_, eh?" Ron continued. "The assistant nearly cried when we said we wanted two."

"What's all that, Hermione?" Harry asked, pointing at the three bulging bags in the chair next to her.

"Well, I'm taking more new subjects than you, aren't I?" said Hermione. "Those are my books for Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, the Study of Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies -"

"What are you doing Muggle Studies for?" said Ron, rolling his eyes at Harry. "You're Muggle-born! Your mum and dad are Muggles! You already know all about Muggles!"

"But it'll be fascinating to study them from the wizarding point of view," said Hermione earnestly.

"Are you planning to eat or sleep at all this year, Hermione?" asked Harry, while Ron sniggered.

Hermione glared at them for a moment and then chose to ignore them. She was sure there was a way to manage all her courses; otherwise this year's letter would not have included them. Instead she reached for her purse.

"I've still got ten Galleons. As you know, my birthday's September 19th, and Mum and Dad gave me some money to get myself an early birthday present."

"How about a nice _book_?" said Ron innocently.

Hermione's cheeks tinted slightly but she managed to keep her composure. "No, I don't think so. I really want an owl. I mean, Harry's got Hedwig and you've got Errol -"

"I haven't," said Ron. "Errol's a family owl. All I've got is Scabbers." He pulled the rat out of his pocket. "And I want to get him checked over," he added, placing Scabbers on the table in front of them. "I don't think Egypt agreed with him."

Hermione had conflicting feelings about Scabbers. He was a rat, after all, and not an animal that Hermione particularly liked. She didn't mind that Ron had a rat for a pet, but she knew she would never want one. She didn't particularly want an owl as a pet either, but she saw the advantages of having her own post owl, so that was the decision she had made.

"There's a magical creature shop just over there," said Harry. "You could see if they've got anything for Scabbers, and Hermione can get her owl."

They paid for their ice-cream and crossed the street to the Magical Menagerie. While Ron asked the saleswitch at the counter about Scabbers, Hermione wandered around the store looking at the different owls for sale. She was just deciding between a barn and a tawny owl when a commotion at the counter caused her to look over. A large orange cat had leapt at Ron and began trying to chase Scabbers. Ron and Harry had darted out the door after the escaping rat, while the saleswitch had managed to get a hold of the cat she called Crookshanks.

Hermione went over to the counter. "What happened?"

"Crookshanks tried to get the ginger boy's rat. Darndest thing I've ever seen. He doesn't usually chase rats," she saleswitch said.

With Scabbers gone, Crookshanks was very relaxed. Hermione studied him for a moment and he appeared to study her just as fiercely. Then, quite suddenly, Crookshanks walked to the edge of the counter and sat in front of Hermione, waiting to be petted. Hermione smiled and petted him.

"Well if that isn't the second darndest thing I've ever seen," the saleswitch said again. "Crookshanks has never taken to anyone like that. That's why he's been here so long," the saleswitch confided. "No one wanted him."

"I'll take him," Hermione said grinning. She reached for her purse and brought out her Galleons, noticing the bottle of rat tonic on the counter. "Was this what Ron was getting?" she asked.

The saleswitch nodded. "The ginger boy? Aye, it was."

"I better get this for him too then." She paid the saleswitch, getting a travelling basket for Crookshanks as well, and then left the shop. As she exited, holding Crookshanks in her arms, she spotted Ron and Harry.

"You _bought_ that monster?" said Ron, his mouth hanging open.

"He's _gorgeous_, isn't he?" said Hermione, glowing.

"That thing nearly scalped me!"

"He didn't mean to, did you, Crookshanks?" She looked down at the cat in her arms and tried to refrain from cooing.

"And what about Scabbers? He needs rest and relaxation! How's he going to get it with that thing around?"

"That reminds me, you forgot your rat tonic," said Hermione, slapping the small red bottle into Ron's hand. "And stop _worrying_, Crookshanks will be sleeping in my dormitory and Scabbers in yours, what's the problem? Poor Crookshanks, that witch said he's been there for ages; no one wanted him."

"I wonder why," said Ron sarcastically.

**oOoOo**

Hermione, Harry and Ron went back to the Leaky Cauldron. Ron had a pretty easy time carrying his stuff, but all of Hermione's extra books, and Crookshanks, were causing her some difficulties. She smiled radiantly at Harry when he offered to help her carry some of it.

They met Mr. Weasley alone at the bar, but Hermione didn't stay for the conversation. She raced up to the room that she would share with Ginny, set Crookshanks and one bag on her bed, and then she ran back down to collect the other bags, pausing only long enough to say hi to the rest of the Weasley's and congratulate Percy on becoming Head Boy, before racing back up to her room again. She sat on the floor, with Crookshanks in her lap, and sorted through her purchases, pausing to peruse the first chapter of each of her new subjects, before arranging them in her trunk.


	2. Professor R J Lupin

Read, review, enjoy. =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Two - Professor R. J. Lupin**

Hermione always tried to stay out of Weasley family arguments. Even Percy's usually rational mind tended to get irrational very quickly if he was mad. And while the twins didn't usually fight directly with anyone, they always seemed to be the catalyst for fights breaking out between the rest of the siblings.

Dinner had been fairly nice. The food was wonderful as always, and things were going really well until Percy asked Mr. Weasley how they were all getting to King's Cross in the morning. It turned out that the ministry was providing a couple of cars as a "favor." After such a busy day, Hermione didn't think any of this explanation, even though it struck her as being fairly odd. When everyone else at the table dismissed it easily though, Hermione thought that maybe things were really that simple and she should stop over thinking things.

After dinner, she and Ginny retreated to their room and talked about Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, boys in general, their trips to France and Egypt, and all sorts of other things as they ignored the shouting from Ron and Percy's room.

The next morning, Hermione and Ginny were the first up and ready. They dragged their trunks down the narrow staircase and piled them near the door where Tom the bartender indicated. Then they sat down to breakfast with Mrs. Weasley who started reminiscing about her years at Hogwarts, including brewing a Love potion that she gave to Mr. Weasley during her 7th year. Apparently her potion was very badly balanced and Mr. Weasley spent two or three hours professing love to every girl he saw, except for her. He terrified a number of Hufflepuffs until Professor Sprout overheard him and took him to the hospital wing. Hermione and Ginny found this extremely amusing.

When the Ministry cars arrived, Hermione rode with Harry, Ron, and, to Ron's disgust, Percy. She was quite impressed by the ride, noting how the Ministry cars seemed almost ordinary but could slide through gaps a normal car certainly couldn't have managed. Hermione would have liked to ask Percy about them, but he and Ron (who were sitting on either side of her) were huffing quietly to themselves and pointedly ignoring one another.

**oOoOo**

"Come on, everywhere else is full."

Hermione, Harry and Ron walked into the not-quite-empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express and closed the door.

"Who d'you reckon he is," Ron hissed, nodding to the man sleeping against the window.

The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light brown hair was streaked with grey.

"Professor R.J. Lupin," Hermione whispered at once, shifting her luggage around and levitating her trunk onto the luggage rack before sitting down next to the sleeping figure.

Ron looked at Harry. "How does she do that?" He turned and stared at Hermione. "How is it that you know everything?" Ron said quietly as he placed his trunk on the luggage rack also. He sat next to the window with Harry sitting beside him to his right.

"It's on his suitcase, Ronald," Hermione replied, pointing up at the luggage rack over the man's head. Ron and Harry's eyes flicked to the small, battered case that was held together with a large quantity of neatly knotted string, to see the peeling letters for themselves.

"Wonder what he teaches," said Ron, frowning at Professor Lupin's pallid profile.

"That's obvious," whispered Hermione. "There's only one vacancy, isn't there? Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Ron snorted. "Well, I hope he's up to it. He looks like one good hex would finish him off, doesn't he?"

Hermione glared at Ron. Even though he had a point (based on Professor Lupin's appearance) it was still a rude thing to say.

"Anyway..." Ron turned to Harry. "What were you going to tell us?"

Harry explained all about overhearing Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's argument the previous night and the warning that Mr. Weasley had just given him. When he'd finished, Ron looked thunderstruck, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth. Their reactions were basically what Harry had expected.

Five or six pieces came together in Hermione's mind. Harry wasn't in trouble because Minister Fudge was just happy Harry was still alive. And the Ministry had arranged for Mr. Weasley to see Harry to Platform 9 & 3/4 by sending two cars to take them. She finally lowered her hands from her mouth to say, "Sirius Black's escaped to come after _you_? Oh, Harry... you'll have to be really, really careful. Don't go looking for trouble -"

"I don't go looking for trouble," said Harry, nettled. "Trouble usually finds _me_."

"How thick would Harry have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants to kill him?" said Ron shakily. "No one knows how he got out of Azkaban. No one's ever done it before. And he was a top-security prisoner too."

"But they're catch him, won't they?" said Hermione earnestly. "I mean, they've got all the Muggles looking out for him too..."

It was at that point that the conversation turned to less important things: the sneakoscope that Ron had given Harry for his birthday and their upcoming Hogsmeade trips. Upon hearing that Harry couldn't go though, the conversation inevitably circled back to Sirius Black.

"We can ask Fred and George, they know every secret passage out of the castle -"

"Ron! I don't think Harry should be sneaking out of school with Black on the loose -"

"Yeah, I expect that's what McGonagall will say when I ask for permission," said Harry bitterly.

"But if _we're_ with him," said Ron spiritedly to Hermione, "Black wouldn't dare -"

"Oh, Ron, don't talk rubbish. Black's already murdered a whole bunch of people in the middle of a crowded street. Do you really think he's going to worry about attacking Harry just because _we're_ there?"

She was fumbling with the straps of Crookshanks's basket as she spoke.

"Don't let that think out!" Ron said, but too late; as soon as the lid was off, Crookshanks leapt lightly out of the basket, stretched, yawned and sprang onto Ron's knees; the lump in Ron's pocket trembled and he shoved Crookshanks angrily away.

Crookshanks hissed but climbed into an empty seat and started grooming himself, apparently unconcerned with the company at large. After a few minutes Crookshanks even wandered across Hermione's lap to sniff at Professor Lupin's still sleeping figure. The man smelled as if he spent a lot of time around dogs or wolves; slightly dangerous smelling but trustworthy. It was a very uncommon mix and Crookshanks was confused by it. He wandered back across Hermione's lap and settled on the bench on her other side, his squashed face turned toward Ron, his yellow eyes on Ron's top pocket.

**oOoOo**

The lunch trolley came and went, as did Malfoy and his thugs, and still Professor Lupin slept. Hermione was rather concerned when he didn't wake up for some food off the trolley, but the witch had said that if he woke he could always come get some later.

"I suppose he _is_ asleep?" said Ron quietly as the witch slid the compartment door closed. "I mean - he hasn't died, has he?"

"No, no, he's breathing," whispered Hermione.

The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully. Their conversation had died down, and Hermione had pulled out her Ancient Runes book for something to do. The sky outside the train windows gradually darkened until the lanterns in the train flickered into life.

"We must be nearly there," said Ron. The words had hardly left his mouth when the train started to slow down. "Great! I'm starving, I want to get to the feast..."

"We can't be there yet," said Hermione, checking her watch.

"So why're we stopping?"

Harry, who was nearest the door, got up to look into the corridor. All along the carriage, heads were sticking curiously out of their compartments.

The train came to a stop with a jolt, and distant thuds and bangs told them that luggage had fallen out of the racks. Then, without warning, all the lamps went out and they were plunged into total darkness.

"What's going on?" _Ron's voice_.

"Ouch, Ron, that was my foot!"

"D'you think we've broken down?" _Harry's voice_.

"Dunno..." _Ron's voice again._

Neville and Ginny stumbled their way into the compartment falling over everything and causing shouts, gasps and yells of a more terrified nature until an unfamiliar voice spoke up.

"Quiet," Professor Lupin said. Hermione noticed his voice was a bit gravely from having just woken up. There was even a bit of growl to it, but for some reason Hermione's panicked nerves began to calm. He was a teacher after all, and Hermione always respected teachers. Just then a wavering ball of light appeared in the air. Professor Lupin had his wand out, but the light was not the standard Lumos spell. It was silverish and spherical, like a floating full moon, a crystal ball or a ball of silver flames. It disappeared abruptly as things in the train corridor moved towards their compartment.

The temperature dropped to the point where they could see their breath linger in the air. Hermione started shivering, but Crookshanks crawled into her lap, providing her with a bit of warmth. She stroked him absentmindedly, wondering why she felt so cold and sad. Then the compartment door was opened by a black nightmare. Tall and shadowy it sucked in a long rattling breath, causing Hermione's heart to skip a beat and her mind to be weighted down by all the taunts she had suffered from her peers while growing up. Buck-toothed Beaver. Boring Bookworm. Stupid. Ugly. Mudblood.

If it wasn't for Crookshanks's warmth on her lap she probably would have lost her mind. Then, "None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go!" And something bright burst from Professor Lupin's wand and pushed the Dementor back into the corridor. Hermione's mind started being able to find comfort in memories of her mother's voice telling her she was smart, beautiful and special. Why had she not be able to think about that before?

After a few moments the lights came back on and the train started up again. Ron was mostly alright, but Harry was unconscious and Ginny was shaking like mad. Neville was whiter than usual but also seemed to be coming around. He tried to give her a smile when she looked at him, but it was forced. She could see the tears threatening to spill from his eyes so she focused on Ginny for a moment. "Ginny, are you okay?" Her voice was hoarse.

Ginny shook her head, still shivering. She brought her knees to her chest and rocked herself slowly, trying to force herself to breathe.

Hermione then turned her attention to the unconscious Harry. She didn't even notice that the only person in the compartment that was up and moving around was Professor Lupin. He was rummaging around and muttering to himself. Hermione slowly forced herself to move down to the floor next to Harry and try to get him to wake up. "Harry," she called, nudging his shoulder. After two or three times when he still didn't respond she started getting panicky. Her voiced pitched up a bit and she took to patting his face. "Harry?"

Finally he stirred and started coming around. "Wh-what?" he asked, his green eyes opening to find not only Hermione looking down at him, but also Ron and Professor Lupin. Neville was crying silently and trying not to let anyone see. Ginny was still getting herself under control. Harry tried to sit up. Hermione moved back to let him. "What happened? Who screamed?" he asked.

"No one screamed," said Ron.

"But I heard screaming -"

A large snap made everyone jump. Professor Lupin was breaking apart a large chocolate bar into 6 pieces. Two pieces were distinctly larger than the rest. The largest piece he handed to Harry. The next largest piece went to Ginny. Ron, Neville and Hermione all got fairly equal sized pieces and the last and smallest piece he kept for himself. No one really knew what to do about the chocolate.

"Eat it. It'll help," Professor Lupin instructed. Then to prove he was serious, he ate the piece he had saved for himself.

"What was that thing?" Harry asked.

"One of the Dementors of Azkaban," Professor Lupin responded softly. "They were searching the train for Sirius Black. I need to speak with the driver. I'll be back in a moment." He stopped at the door and repeated. "Eat the chocolate. You'll feel better. Trust me." Then he left.

Hermione nibbled her bit of chocolate knowing that it was the best remedy in dealing with the after effects of the emotional depression that Dementors caused according to what she'd read in the textbook. It was also something the muggles had figured out. Chocolate releases endorphins in the brain which make you feel better. She wasn't sure how well it would really work, or if one kind of chocolate worked better than others, but she enjoyed the chocolate anyway. She felt instantly better even after the first bite, so she finished her piece wishing she had a glass of milk to wash it down with. Hermione noticed though that she was the only person to have eaten her chocolate. Harry was talking with Ron. Neville was turned away from everyone and Ginny looked ghostly pale under her red hair.

Professor Lupin returned and joking said, "I haven't poisoned that chocolate you know." Everyone jumped and obediently ate a bite. Hermione stroked Crookshanks's head where he still rested on her lap and watched everyone's reactions for a moment. The chocolate was doing its job. Everyone regained a bit more of their normal color.

Now that things were more or less back to normal, Hermione spared a moment to put her thoughts in order. Professor Lupin, though a bit shabby looking, seemed kind and brave. Plus it was clear that he knew his stuff. Faced with a Dementor and being able to keep his mind long enough to cast a spell was proof of it. Hermione glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He wasn't handsome the way Lockhart had been, but Lockhart had turned out to be the biggest fraud in existence. Hermione had really started applying the saying "you can't judge a book by its cover" to people now too.

It wasn't long til Professor Lupin noticed her staring at him. She forced a small smile. Smiling was taking a lot of energy, after the depression she had so recently underwent. "Thank you for the chocolate, professor."

He grinned warmly at her. "You're welcome," he said simply.

Hermione's smile became easier to do naturally, Professor Lupin's kind hazel eyes telling her that he was going to be a great teacher. Hermione couldn't wait for his lessons.


	3. Rules and Schedules

Forgive me that I don't understand the Hogwarts schedules but I'm trying to use them whenever they're mentioned.

Read, review, enjoy. =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Three - Rules and Schedules**

Hermione, Harry and Ron left the train together and got into the horseless carriages, all of them shuddering slightly as the carriage passed through the Dementor guarded gates. Professor Lupin had gotten his own carriage to ride up to the school in, though Hermione thought it would've been nice to have him in their carriage again.

Upon their arrival in the entrance hall, Professor McGonagall swooped down upon them and ushered Hermione and Harry off to her office. Ron was sent to the Great Hall alone, and though he looked mildly upset, Hermione didn't doubt that he'd get over it as soon as the food appeared.

Professor McGonagall motioned for the students to sit in the chairs across from her desk. "Professor Lupin sent an owl ahead to say that you were taken ill on the train, Potter."

Before Harry could reply Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, came through the door. "Oh, it's you, is it?" she said as she looked at Harry. "I suppose you've been doing something dangerous again?"

"It was a Dementor, Poppy," McGonagall answered and they exchanged a look.

Harry growled, "I'm fine!"

"Of course you are, dear," Madam Pomfrey said absentmindedly as she started giving him a once-over with her wand.

"What does he need? Bed rest? Perhaps he should spend the night in the hospital wing," McGonagall suggested.

Harry pushed the matron's wand away and jumped out of his chair. He retreated towards the wall and shouted. "I'm fine!"

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips, but answered McGonagall as if Harry hadn't spoken. "He needs chocolate at the very least."

"I've already had some," Harry loudly declared again. Hermione nodded. "Professor Lupin gave some to all of us."

Madam Pomfrey looked impressed. "Well, we finally have a defense professor who knows his remedies. Then I guess if Mr. Potter doesn't want to, there's no sense in making him stay the night in the hospital wing."

McGonagall sighed. "Very well. Thank you for coming Poppy."

As soon as the matron left, McGonagall asked once more, "You're sure you're all right, Mr. Potter?"

"I'm fine. Really," he said, moving back towards his vacated chair.

"Very well. Kindly wait outside while I have a quick word with Miss Granger about her course schedule, then we can go down to the feast together."

Hermione had been quiet the whole time. There was nothing for her to do really. Harry's collapse had clearly scared the professors, though it appears he was the only one to have done so. Poor Harry. Everything seems to happen to him. Hermione watched as he went outside the office then turned back to Professor McGonagall.

"Miss Granger, due to your desire to take every elective offered at Hogwarts, I have arranged a way for you to do so without having to miss any of your classes. What I am about to entrust unto you is very secret. You are not allowed to tell anyone that you have it. Not even Misters Potter and Weasley."

Hermione nodded. "I promise not to tell anyone."

McGonagall nodded. "Some of the teachers have been told, but not all. As far as you are concerned this does not exist." She pulled out a golden object on a chain from her desk as she spoke. "This is a time-turner. I had to petition the ministry of magic for this. I told them you were a model student and would never use it for anything except your studies." She held it out to Hermione to take. "Like its name, the time-turner will allow you to go backwards in time, giving you a chance to relive hours and get to all your classes."

"How far back can I go," Hermione asked, taking the chain and staring at the little golden hourglass surrounded by a golden sphere.

"As far back as twenty-four hours. One turn of the hour glass for each hour you wish to go back. I do not recommend that though. Three hours twice a day should be plenty. The first three for morning classes, the second three for afternoon classes depending on the day and amount of classes you need to get to. That will make a single day (on average), from your perspective, thirty hours long. While you are repeating hours, you will not age, but you will be using up more of your life energy. This means that you will need more food to keep up your energy levels, and don't forget to sleep. I would also recommend that you pace yourself with your homework. I know how organized you are so I think you'll be able to handle it."

"Thank you, professor," Hermione said with a smile. "So is that it?"

"Just one or two things more. As I said, you're not to tell anyone. You're only to use it for studies. You'll need extra food, so I would grab extra food at each meal to carry around with you. Let's see... what else..." McGonagall paused for a moment. "Oh yes. The most important rule is this: you must not be seen. This means you can't been seen leaving or arriving, and no one can see you in the same place at the same time - including yourself. Meddling with time is dangerous. Witches and wizards have sometimes killed their past or future selves on accident, so be careful. On your first time through set of hours you plan to redo each day, check for an empty location to time-turn back to. When you're ready to time-turn, go to that location, because where ever you start using the time-turner is where you end up in the past. Any questions?"

"Can't be seen, can't tell anyone, pack extra food, and make sure to find safe places to go back to," Hermione repeated. "I think I've got it."

"Oh, and one last thing," McGonagall added. "Don't use the time-turner during a lightning storm. I didn't ask for the details but apparently the consequences are disastrous."

Hermione frowned in puzzlement. "Can't be seen, can't tell anyone, pack extra food, find safe places to go back to, and don't use it in a lightning storm," she affirmed.

McGonagall dismissed her with a smile. Hermione slipped the time-turner around her neck and tucked the hourglass part down the front of her robes as she opened the door feeling very pleased.

**oOoOo**

Hermione and Harry made their way to the Great Hall, accompanied by Professor McGonagall, disappointed that they had missed the sorting. They did get to hear Dumbledore's speech though, and applauded loudly for Professor Lupin and Hagrid. The start of term feast wore down, the students were dismissed to their houses, and Hermione went up to her dorm to go to bed. She left the time-turner on around her neck, knowing the best way to lose something was to take it off, changed into her pajamas and crawled under the covers.

She didn't fall asleep right away though. She wondered about the time-turner and everything McGonagall had explained to her. How many hours could she actually cram into her day and live through? Thirty seemed like a lot, but that didn't even include extra study time. She would definitely need to make herself study charts. Her mind eventually floated to professor Lupin and what his classes would be like. She felt Crookshanks hop up onto her bed and finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Hermione dressed packed up all her class books into her bag and hurried to the Great Hall for breakfast and schedules. Upon recieving hers, she quickly read it, making note of the need to use her time-turner for Divination, Muggle Studies and Arithmancy during the morning rotation.

"Ooh, good, we're starting some new subjects today," she said happily.

Ron looked over at Hermione's schedule. "That can't be right," he told her. "Look, they've got you down for about a ten subjects a day. There isn't enough _time_."

"I'll manage. I've fixed it all with professor McGonagall."

"But look," Ron said, laughing, "see this morning? Nine o'clock, Divination. And underneath, nine o'clock, Muggle Studies. And" -Ron leaned closer to the schedule disbelieving - "_look_ - underneath that, Arithmancy, _nine o'clock_. I mean, I know you're good, Hermione, but no one's _that_ good. How're you supposed to be in three classes at once?

"Don't be silly," said Hermione shortly. "Of course I won't be in three classes at once." She would never have expected Ron to care about her class list. "So what if my schedule's a little full. I've already cleared it with professor McGonagall."

Luckily Hagrid came up and distracted Ron, giving Hermione a chance to look down the rest of her schedule. After her complicated nine o'clock hour was Transfiguration, then lunch and finally Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes. She decided the easiest way to handle the morning would be to go to Divination and Transfiguration with Harry and Ron, time turn back two hours to sit Muggle Studies and then turn back one hour to sit through Arithmancy before playing time catch up. So she'd be living through three extra hours, just like Professor McGonagall said, but one of those hours would be empty of classes. With that in mind, she grabbed an orange for later, and joined Ron and Harry in the hunt for the North Tower.


	4. First Day Back

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Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Four - First Day Back**

Divination was very upsetting. To Hermione it was because she was told that books wouldn't be much help in the subject. To everyone else it was because of Harry's tea leaves. At least professor McGonagall had comforting words, though most were still upset over the Grim.

At least Hermione's time-turning was going smoothly. After Divination and Transfiguration, Hermione told Harry and Ron that she needed to go to the bathroom and slipped into the broom closet closest to the Muggle Studies classroom and went back in time two hours.

Muggle Studies went by smoothly. Professor Burbage was a nice witch whose main focus of the course was to enlighten pureblood wizards about muggle culture. She was a bit surprised to have Hermione in class, but welcomed her warmly all the same.

When Muggle Studies ended, Hermione went straight to the broom closet closest to the Arithmancy classroom (luckily a different closet) and went back one hour. She knew that she would soon get sick of the broom closets and vowed to find better places tomorrow.

Arithmany was by far Hermione's favorite subject of the morning. Professor Vector gave them an introduction to the course, outlining that numbers are deeply magical by nature and everything has a base number assigned to it, giving certain seemingly completely different objects an underlying similarity.

Finally, her time-turning was done. Now she just had to think about where she was going to spend the hour waiting on Harry and Ron to get out of Transfiguration without getting caught. She decided to go to the library and start her Arithmany homework. Since it was a simple first-day-of-the-term assignment, she was able to finish it long before the hour was up, and spent the rest of the time looking over her schedule for the rest of the week.

Finally, it was time to meet Harry and Ron in the Great Hall for lunch (and boy was she hungry). As she walked "back from the bathroom" she reminded herself that they had been talking about Divination again.

She sat down across from Ron, and seeing he was still wearing a rather depressed look, pushed a dish of stew towards him. "Ron, cheer up. You heard what Professor McGonagall said." And that was all the prompting he needed.

"Harry, you _haven't_ seen a great black dog anywhere, have you?" he asked in a low, serious voice.

"Yeah, I have," said Harry. "I saw one the night I left the Dursleys'."

Ron's fork clattered to the table. "Probably a stray," Hermione said calmly between bites. She was really hungry. That orange hadn't been nearly enough.

Ron looked at Hermione as if she had gone mad, and launched into a tale about how his uncle Bilius had died because of one. Hermione snorted and passed the tale off as a bunch of nonsense before reaching into her bag and bringing out her Arithmancy book again.

"I think Divination seems very woolly," she said, searching for her page. "A lot of guesswork, if you ask me."

"There was nothing woolly about the Grim in that cup!" said Ron hotly.

"You didn't seem quite so confident when you were telling Harry it was a sheep."

"Professor Trelawney said you didn't have the right aura! You just don't like being bad at something for a change!"

Hermione slammed her book shut. "If being good at Divination means I have to pretend to see death omens in a lump of tea leaves, I'm not sure I'll be studying it much longer! That lesson was absolute rubbish compared with my Arithmancy class!" She snatched up her bag and stalked away, muttering to herself.

She was half-way up the first floor corridor when she realized that Ron's remark had driven her away from the table and she hadn't grabbed anything to eat for that afternoon. She sighed. At least she only had Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes so it wouldn't be too bad - just one extra hour.

This time, because Ron had upset her so much, she went to Ancient Runes first and then time-turned back and met Harry and Ron in the entrance hall for Care of Magical Creatures.

She didn't talk to Ron at all on the way to Hagrid's hut, but got there and pulled out her spellotaped copy of the textbook, lining up next to Harry and trying to ignore Malfoy and the other Slytherins.

"Alright. Firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books -" Hagrid was saying.

"How?" said the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.

"Eh?"

"How do we open our books?" Malfoy repeated.

"Hasn' - hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid looking crestfallen.

Hermione shook her head with the rest of the class, looking apologetically at Hagrid and scolding herself for not figuring out how to. But the thing had tried to attack her!

"Yeh've got ter _stroke_ 'em," said Hagrid, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look -"

He took Hermione's copy and ripped off the spellotape. The book tried to bite, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Malfoy sneered. "We should have _stroked_ them! Why didn't we guess!"

"I - I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly as he handed Hermione back her book.

"Oh, tremendously funny!" Malfoy said. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry said quietly.

**oOoOo**

Care of Magical Creatures ended disastrously. Malfoy was injured during Hagrid's lesson and Hermione, Ron and Harry all knew that Malfoy would milk that injury for all its worth. They went up to the common room and started working on their Transfiguration homework together, but their conversation and worry about Hagrid kept distracting them. They were amongst the first to the Great Hall for dinner, anxious to see Hagrid. But he wasn't there.

"They _wouldn't_ fire him, would they?" Hermione asked. Despite being ravenous, she was too worried to eat.

"They'd better not," said Ron, who wasn't eating either.

"Well, you can't say it wasn't an interesting first day back," said Harry gloomily.

The three sat there silently for a moment, watching the hall, and then as if they had somehow agreed, they all started eating. They couldn't just worry, and they couldn't skip dinner without regretting it later. But none of them ate much and they headed back to Gryffindor tower, noticing as they left the Great Hall that Malfoy was still in the hospital wing.


	5. Lessons

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Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Five - Lessons**

Malfoy didn't reappear for lessons until late Thursday****** morning, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors were half-way through double Potions. Hermione was seated across the aisle to Harry's left, so she couldn't hear the conversation between Harry, Ron and Malfoy, but she could tell from their expressions that it wasn't good.

She worked diligently through the lesson, following the instructions on the board and in the textbook, only looking up when Professor Snape sneered down at the orange potion in Neville's cauldron. Since Neville was working next to Hermione at the same table, she could clearly hear every word that Professor Snape said.

"Please, sir, please, I could help Neville put it right -"

"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," said Snape coldly.

As soon as Snape turned away, Neville moaned, "Help me!"

Hermione spent the rest of the lesson muttering directions out of the corner of her mouth whenever Snape wasn't looking. Even though she lost Gryffindor 5 points, at least Neville's toad was alright. As they left the classroom, Hermione noticed that Snape had held them after and she was in danger of being late to her next (well, other) class. She ducked into the empty classroom at the bottom of the stairs and time-turned back so she could get to Ancient Runes on time.

As soon as the world settled around her, she ran for it, reaching Ancient Runes right before Professor Babbling***** **started lecturing. She apologized and took her seat, grateful that she had made it in time, and castigating herself for not thinking up an excuse for Ron and Harry. She just knew that she had to make it back to the dungeon staircase before they realized she was missing.

She didn't quite make it. It seemed that everyone was holding their class over. She had to run full tilt back to the dungeons, not caring that someone from potions class might see her go into the empty classroom and then run up the hallway, but she was lucky on that count. She wasn't quite lucky enough to catch up to Ron and Harry though.

"How did you do that?" Ron asked her.

"What?"

"One minute you were right behind us, and the next moment, you were back at the bottom of the stairs again."

Hermione was slightly confused. She went into the empty classroom at the bottom of the stairs, not the top... didn't she? "Oh - I had to go back for something. Oh no-"

A seam had split on Hermione's bag from all the extra books she had to carry around with her. Because her schedule changed from day to day, she had taken to carrying every one of her books with her for when she had free hours to work on her homework.

"Why are you carrying all these around with you?" Ron asked her.

"You know how many subjects I'm taking," Hermione said breathlessly. "Couldn't hold these for me, could you?"

"But -" Ron's objections were waylaid for a moment as he studied the books she handed him as she magically repaired her bag. "You haven't got any of these subjects today," Ron pressed. "It's only Defense Against the Dark Arts this afternoon."

"Oh yes," said Hermione vaguely, but she packed all the books back into her bag just the same. "I hope there's something good for lunch, I'm starving," she added as she led the way to the Great Hall.

**oOoOo**

That afternoon was their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, something which Hermione had been looking forward to. The classroom was open, so they all headed inside and found desks. Hermione pulled out her textbook, a quill, inkwell and some parchment and waited. Professor Lupin arrived a few minutes late, his robes looking as shabby as ever, but his eyes and his stance conveyed energy from a good night's sleep and a few square meals.

"You won't be needing your books today. Instead, I'd like you all just to grab your wands and follow me."

The class did as they were told, Hermione at the front of the line that followed the Professor through the castle to the staff room. His dealing of Peeves was quite amusing, and Hermione was pleasantly surprised to note that Professor Lupin seemed to have memorized his class list and was able to identify each student already. What surprised Hermione more was his use of their first names rather than their surnames.

She realized again that Professor Lupin was rather young for a teacher, being about the same age as Professor Snape, even though Professor Lupin's light brown hair was beginning to be touched with grey. Hermione wondered if the loss of pigment was due to stress, but she was distracted when the lesson began.

"Who can tell me what a Boggart is?"

"Boggarts are shape shifters. They take the form of whatever the person fears the most. That's what makes them - "

" - So terrifying. Very good, Hermione. Though we've got an advantage over this boggart. Has anyone spotted it? How about you, Harry?"

Hermione's hand was in the air. "Er... because there's so many of us, it won't know what to turn into," Harry asked.

Hermione, while pleased that Harry got it right, was disappointed in not being able to show off. Impressing teachers and adults was one of her weaknesses.

"Very good, Harry."

Professor Lupin then went on to explain about boggarts and laughter and had Neville step up to be the first to battle the boggart. Hermione was highly impressed with everyone. Some of their fears were terrifying. Hermione tried to think of what her biggest fear would be, but kept getting distracted. As she watched, she mentally checked off a fear of banshees, snakes, acromantula, mummies, crawling hands, and a plethora of other things. Sure, each was pretty scary, but none were her biggest fears.

It was rather unlucky that Harry was in front of her in the line they had formed. He stepped up planning to battle the boggart, but Professor Lupin jumped in front of him. It took Hermione a moment to even see what the boggart had changed into, and at first she was confused. It looked like the ball of light that Professor Lupin had conjured on the train: silvery and spherical. He motioned Neville up to take over again. The boggart Snape was back. Neville forced it back into his grandmother's clothes and let out a mighty, "Ha," of triumph, causing the boggart to explode into tiny wisps of smoky substance that dissipated and vanished.

"5 points to everyone who dealt with the boggart, 10 for Neville because he did it twice, and 5 points each to Harry and Hermione for answering my questions at the start of class. Best head back to collect your things."

"I wish I had a chance at the boggart," Hermione said as she walked with Harry and Ron.

"What would it have been for you?" said Ron, sniggering. "A piece of homework that only got 9 out of 10?"

Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes in annoyance.

**** Even though September 1st, 1993 would have been a Wednesday, we are going under the assumption that September 1st was on Monday. Now, either Hogwarts always starts on Sept. 1st, or it always starts the first Monday of September. Both cannot be true, but for the sake of arguing, the book says Malfoy returns to class on Thursday and since I doubt he was out of class for a full week, we will just say term started on Monday, he was injured in CoMC on Tuesday, he skipped classes all day on Wednesday, and then came into potions late just to piss off Harry and Ron.**

***** The Ancient Runes professor is never mentioned by name in the books nor the movies, but according to Wikipedia, Rowling announced on her official website that Ancient Runes is taught by Professor Bathsheda Babbling.**


	6. Overworked

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Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Six - Overworked**

Hermione soon fell into a routine with her time-turner. At first it was pretty nice, having all that extra time, but as the year continued, the amount of homework being assigned grew to the point where she was now having to turn back a few hours before bed each night to keep up with the work load.

Friday night, on October 16th, Hermione actually feel asleep in the empty classroom she had been using as a study. She was glad it was the weekend finally as the last two days had been horrendous. First there was the fight with Ron about Crookshanks and Scabbers, then there was that awful scene with Lavender Brown about her rabbit being killed by a fox, and Ron's angry comment that Hermione didn't care about other people's pets. And finally, Harry was sulking because he couldn't come to Hogsmeade with the rest of the third years.

It wasn't fair. Of course Hermione cared about other people's pets. In Ron's case though, it was his prejudices against her cat that started that argument, and as for Lavender - well, all she was trying to prove was that Professor Trelawney was a fraud and even though she had been kind of right, putting that much store into Divination was just not logical. As for Harry... well, with Sirius Black on the loose, Hermione agreed whole heartedly with Professor McGonagall's decision not to let Harry into Hogsmeade. She was highly annoyed with Ron for suggesting he sneak out though, and had to remind him and Harry both what Dumbledore said about Dementor's being able to see through invisibility cloaks.

All of that drama was what had caused Hermione to time-turn back for a few more hours of studying, having forgotten that she would have all weekend to catch up on work. She grumbled to herself for a moment while she put her thoughts in order and decided that she might as well use the time to her advantage, thus heading to the empty common room where she fell asleep.

Professor Lupin, who was making rounds that night, found her snoring slightly with her face plastered to an essay for Transfiguration. He chuckled from the doorway, reminded strongly of another brilliant witch he had known. He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hermione, wake up," he said gently.

Hermione mumbled slightly but didn't stir. Lupin chuckled to himself. He was such a mean old man, but he couldn't resist. "Miss Granger," he snapped loudly from behind her.

Hermione woke up with a start. _Oh no! I fell asleep! It must be after curfew! I'm in so much trouble!_ Panicked thoughts ran through her mind as she looked around. "I'm so sorry, professor," she started, hastening to collect her things. "I was studying and must have fallen asleep." She stopped moving when she heard chuckling.

"Hermione, you work too hard. Comes with being the brightest witch of your age, though," Lupin said, walking back around the table so she could see him. He watched as she blushed slightly at the praise.

"Thank you," she said. After a pause she asked, "So, I'm not in trouble?"

Lupin chuckled. "No, there's still about half an hour before curfew. Why don't we go to my office and have some tea?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, I'm sorry, professor. I really need to finish this essay before I go to bed."

"On the weekend," Lupin asked. When Hermione nodded, Lupin shrugged, prepared to admit defeat when he heard Hermione's stomach rumble. "Then we'll just have something here. Did you forget to eat dinner?"

Hermione blushed embarrassedly. She did eat dinner but that must've been nearly three (six for her) hours ago. "I suppose I am a little hungry," she admitted, reaching for her essay and quill.

Lupin conjured one of the special trays from the Hogwarts kitchen. It was the easiest way to get food to any place in the castle, seeing as food couldn't be conjured. As soon as the tray was placed on the table, a pitcher of tea, two cups, a bowl of sugar, a bowl of lemon wedges, and a plate of finger sandwiches appeared there. Lupin poured the tea and then offered Hermione a sandwich, which she only took once she had finished the sentence she was writing.

"So what essay are you working on," Lupin asked her as she added a spoonful of sugar to her tea.

"Transfiguration. It's one of my favorite classes. I hope to become an animagus some day."

"Ambitious," Lupin said with a smile. "As bright as you are, I bet that if you started learning now you would be able to master it before your 5th year."

Hermione nearly spit out her tea. "But sir, the ministry has very strict laws about Animagi, like the test and the registry. Professor McGonagall told us all about it at our first lesson this year when she showed us her Animagus form. Besides, we don't start human transfiguration til N.E.W.T. level."

Lupin smiled. "I didn't say you had to, or that you should, I just said that I think you could if you tried."

Hermione looked slightly flabbergasted. "Um, thank you, professor."

"You're welcome. Er, you've got a bit of ink on your face, no doubt from when you were using your essay as a pillow."

Hermione blushed a bit harder and rubbed her face for a moment but then gave up. "I'll get it off later."

Lupin sipped his tea and watched Hermione finish her essay. He made a point of telling her to eat something periodically when she got too absorbed and also offered to read over her essay once she finished. It was very well written, though nearly two rolls of parchment longer than the assignment required.

Hermione was pleased with Professor Lupin's comments on her essay and left for Gryffindor tower feeling much better than she had earlier. Professor Lupin's comments had been very helpful, though he reminded her that her essay should stay a little more on topic. There were plenty of times when an example she used took too long to get to the point she was trying to make. Perhaps if he was available, she'd ask professor Lupin to proof read all her essays.


	7. Halloween

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Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Seven - Halloween**

Halloween morning, Hermione excitedly dressed for a day in Hogsmeade******. She had been so interested in learning about the history of the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain that she had even skipped out on doing any homework the night before and had caught up on all the sleep she'd been missing since she started living thirty-three hour days.

Even Ron couldn't spoil her mood, but then she remembered that Harry wasn't coming with them. She could tell he was trying to act as normally as possible through breakfast, but it still hurt to know that Harry wasn't happy.

"We'll bring you lots of sweets back from Honeydukes," said Hermione.

"Yeah, loads," agreed Ron. It was the first time he had agreed with Hermione in the past three weeks, and they all knew it was because Harry was more important to them than their pet squabble.

"Don't worry about me," Harry said. "I'll see you at the feast. Have a good time."

He walked with them to the entrance hall and watched them leave. Hermione turned back one last time to wave before following the group the rest of the way down to the gates.

Even though Hermione was sad for Harry, she couldn't contain her excitement, and neither, it seemed could Ron.

**oOoOo**

The day passed by so quickly and suddenly Hermione and Ron were heading back to the castle. Hermione and Ron had gone to every store along the main road, and Hermione was surprised to be reminded that Ron was much easier to deal with when he wasn't under outside pressure, though they did avoid his brothers and pointedly didn't bring up Crookshanks or Scabbers.

It was just before dinner when they reached the common room and showered Harry in the sweets they had gotten for him from Honeyduke's sweet shop.

"So what did you do?" Hermione asked as soon as she realized that her and Ron's chatter about what they had done was making Harry upset again. "Did you get any work done?"

"No," said Harry. "Lupin made me a cup of tea in his office. And then Snape came in..."

He told them all about the smoking goblet of potion.

"_Lupin drank it?_" Ron gasped with his mouth open. "Is he mad?"

"I'm sure it's okay. I mean -" Hermione lowered her voice. "If Professor Snape _was_ trying to - to poison Lupin - he wouldn't have done it in front of Harry." She checked her watch. "The feast will be starting in five minutes, so we'd better hurry down."

When they reached the great hall they were happy to see Professor Lupin sitting at the staff table talking animatedly to tiny Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher. He looked perfectly fine so Harry, Ron and Hermione just enjoyed the feast and the entertainment that was provided by the ghosts, including Nearly-Headless Nick's reenactment of is own botched beheading.

It was such a pleasant evening, and in Hermione's opinion a great way to end the day. That thought set her nerves going. Saturday was over and she still had a ton of homework! She flowed along the usual path to Gryffindor Tower when the rest of her house, but was jerked out of her reverie by the corridor being jammed with students.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" said Ron curiously.

"Portrait seems to be closed," Harry commented.

It was about then that Percy arrived and pushed his way to the front of the queue. Hermione could tell that something was wrong the way Percy snapped, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait; the Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione moved closer to see what the trouble was.

"Oh my -" Hermione grabbed Harry's arm.

The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely.

Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin and Snape hurrying toward him. He began issuing instructions but was interrupted by Peeves the Poltergeist.

Peeves was delighted, as he always was, at the sight of wreckage and worry. "You'll be lucky to find her," he said. "Ashamed she is. Doesn't want to be seen. She's in a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing," he added unconvincingly.

"Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly.

"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves, with the air of one cradling large bombshell in his arms. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see. Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

**oOoOo**

Everyone was sent to the Great Hall. Somewhere along the way, Hermione lost sight of Professor Lupin, though he and nearly every other professor (besides Trelawney who was probably still in her tower) was in the Great Hall at some point during the night.

Hermione, Harry and Ron grabbed sleeping bags for themselves and dragged them into a corner, talking quietly about how Sirius Black got into the castle. Hermione assumed he was breaking into Gryffindor Tower to get to Harry, but then realized that didn't make sense since he came in the middle of the dinner hour... unless he was planning to wait and hide somewhere in the tower, but even if he had the password the Fat Lady would've remembered him being there. It didn't make sense.

She gave up trying to think and listened to the other whispers around her, snorting slightly at their ludicracy. "Honestly, am I the _only_ person who's ever bothered to read _Hogwarts, A History_?"

"Probably," said Ron. "Why?"

She went on to tell Ron and Harry about all the protections that Hogwarts had, including ways to keep people from Apparating, and reminding them that the Dementors were guarding the gates, and that the teachers were probably guarding the secret passages. That efficiently ended the conversation for them.

Hermione, though, couldn't sleep any more than the boys could. They were still awake around 3am when professor Dumbledore came to speak with Percy. He had finally found the Fat Lady and completed a search of the school. Snape soon joined them, and it was pure luck that they were close enough for Harry, Hermione and Ron to hear the conversation.

"Have you any theory as to how he got in, Professor?" asked Snape?"

"Many, Severus, each of them as unlikely as the next."

"You remember the conversation we had, Headmaster, just before - ah - the start of term?"

"I do," Dumbledore said, and there was something like warning in his voice.

"It seems - almost impossible - that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed -"

"I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it," said Dumbledore, and his tone made it so clear that the subject was closed that Snape didn't reply. Then he took his leave.

**oOoOo**

Hermione lay awake awhile longer, though she didn't come to any conclusions. Snape's words were the most ominous. He objected to Dumbledore hiring someone? Lupin or Hagrid were the only two new teachers this year, and Hagrid had been Game Keeper forever, so why was Snape concerned about Professor Lupin? Was it connected to the potion Harry saw? Hermione had no concrete answers so she resolved to think about it no more for the time being and went to sleep.

****Again I'm finding a few discrepancies with the days. Halloween was actually on a Friday, but Rowling wanted it to be the day of the Hogsmeade trip which is always on a Saturday. Then there's the upcoming Quidditch match and the Wolfsbane potion. According to later chapters in PoA, Lupin is supposed to take the potion **_**over the course of the week leading up to the full moon**_**, so since a full month hasn't passed by the time of the Quidditch match, Lupin must have just started taking the potion.**


	8. Werewolves and Quidditch

Okay everyone. I'm almost caught up to where I was, and I really hope you're all enjoying this version just as much or more than my first attempt. I am so annoyed at myself though. I had such a cute scene between Hermione and Lupin here during the quidditch match and I had to get rid of it because even though Lupin would've been human during the day, he still would have been locked in his office. Werewolf transformations are supposed to be really draining and the quidditch match would have been right in the middle of the full moon. *Sad face.* Aw well. Either way the book specifically says that Lupin wasn't at the quidditch match and I guess I just have to accept that. Oh, also, somewhere along the way Lupin's Defense Against the Dark Arts class switched from Thursday to Friday. *Shrug*

Read, review, enjoy. =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Eight - Werewolves and Quidditch**

The rumors about Sirius Black continued over the next few days, but since everything was more or less back to normal, the talk soon switched to the upcoming Quidditch match. Hermione knew that Harry was stressed out about the match, but she had her own problems to worry about in keeping up with her time-turner. She was amazed that only a week had gone by.

Friday came and with it Defense Against the Dark Arts. The door was locked, which was unusual - even if professor Lupin wasn't there yet, it was always unlocked for them to enter. Concerned, Hermione joined the queue outside the door and was surprised when Professor Snape appeared and ordered them into the room. She quietly took her seat and pulled out her book, looking around anxiously for Harry.

Professor Snape told the class to sit quietly while he looked through Lupin's notes. Ron grumbled but put his head on his desk; Hermione organized her notes. Where was Harry?

Suddenly, Harry burst through the door. "Sorry I'm late, Professor Lupin, I -" He stopped upon seeing Snape behind the desk.

"Class started ten minutes ago, Potter, so I think we'll make it ten points from Gryffindor. Sit down."

Harry remained standing. "Where's professor Lupin?"

"He says he's feeling too ill to teach today. I believe I told you to sit down?"

"What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing life-threatening. Five more points from Gryffindor, and if I have to ask you to sit down again, it will be fifty."

Harry finally sat in his seat.

Snape looked around the class. "It appears that Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far -"

"Please, sir, we've done boggarts, Red Caps, kappas, and grindylows," said Hermione quickly, "and we're just about to start -"

"Be quiet," said Snape coldly. "I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin's lack of organization."

"He's the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had," said Dean Thomas from the back.

"You are easily satisfied. Lupin is hardly overtaxing you - I would expect first years to be able to deal with Red Caps and grindylows. Today we shall discuss ... werewolves."

"But sir," said Hermione, seemingly unable to restrain herself, "we're not supposed to do werewolves yet, we're due to start hinkypunks -"

"Miss Granger, I was under the impression that I am teaching this lesson, not you. And I am teling you all to turn to page 394. _Now_."

With many bitter sidelong looks and some sullen muttering, the class opened their books.

"Which of you can tell me how we distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?" said Snape?

Hermione's hand shot straight into the air as usual. Snape ignored her.

"Are you telling me that Professor Lupin hasn't even taught you the basic distinction? Well, well, well, I never thought I'd meet a third-year class who wouldn't even recognize a werewolf when they saw one. I shall make a point of informing Professor Dumbledore how very behind you all are..."

"Please, sir," said Hermione, whose hand was still in the air, "the werewolf differs from the true wolf in several small ways. The snout of the werewolf -"

"That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger. Are you incapable of keeping your mouth shut or do you take delight in being an insufferable know-it-all?"

Hermione went very red in the face and lowered her hand, fighting back tears.

"You asked us a question and she knows the answer!" Ron said loudly. "Why ask if you don't want to be told?"

Hermione gave Ron a worried look as several people in the class gasped.

"Detention, Weasley."

The rest of the period was devoted to taking notes on the chapter about werewolves. When the bell rang, Snape held them back. "You will each write an essay, to be handed in to me, on the ways you recognize and kill werewolves. I want two rolls of parchment on the subject by Monday morning."

"But sir, it's quidditch tomorrow," Harry said.

"Then you had best not waste any time. Loss of limb will not excuse you. Dismissed."

As everyone made towards the door, Snape added, "Stay behind, Weasley, we have to arrange your detention."

**oOoOo**

Hermione had been so distracted from living thirty-three hour days that it was beginning to affect her memory. Conversations she had or would be having kept overlapping in her mind, so it was somewhat of a shock when she went down to the first Quidditch match of the term to see Gryffindor playing against Hufflepuff. When had that happened? She tried to remember. Harry had told her a few days ago... or had it been a few weeks ago? She shook her head and pushed her wet hair from her eyes. _Stupid Malfoy..._

It was by far the most rainy quidditch match Hermione had ever been to. She almost felt like it would've been better, especially considering the weather, to have just stayed in the common room and worked on Snape's werewolf essay. She couldn't quite bring herself to do it though. All work and no play makes Hermione go crazy. She could definitely use the break.

She watched the match as best as she could, though the commentary was impossible to hear. She hoped Harry was doing alright, though she wondered how he could see anything through his, no doubt, rain streaked glasses. She clapped hand to her mouth at her stupidity and tugged on Ron's arm.

"I'm going down to the pitch," she yelled to him.

"What?" Ron yelled back, having not been able to hear her.

"I said I'm going down to the pitch!"

Ron still didn't seem to have understood her, so Hermione just turned and jostled her way through the stands to the staircase that led down to the pitch. Once under the cover of the staircase, the noise level dropped noticeably, though the commentary was still undecipherable.

Hermione took her time on the stairs, trying not to slip from all the water dripping from her wet clothes. She also had no idea if/when Oliver would call a time out so she could help. For all she knew, he might never call a time out.

She exited the cover of the stairs and to her surprise (and luck) the whole of Gryffindor team was on the ground. She ran over to them in time to hear that Gryffindor was ahead by fifty points and that Harry's glasses were just as useless as she feared. She ran up and pulled her wand out.

"Harry, let me see your glasses."

He handed them to her with a confused expression. She tapped them and said, "_Impurvius_. There. Now they'll repel water."

Harry grinned at her, looking like he wanted to scoop her up for a hug, but not daring. Hermione didn't even notice Oliver's expression. If Wood hadn't been concerned that she was Harry's girl, he would've kissed her full on the mouth for being so brilliant. Though he expected it would've been more than a little awkward afterwards. He was a few years older and quidditch captain and it would've been hard to crush the automatic crush that the girl would surely develop from such a display. He settled for clapping her on the shoulder, with a strangled, "Brilliant." Hermione smiled at him.

Hermione watched at they resumed play, seemingly spirited by her wand work on Harry's glasses. She made her way back up the staircase to the stands.

**oOoOo**

Hermione paced next to Harry's unconscious form in the infirmary, not bothering to listen to the comments made by the team. At Harry's words though, she moved back to the bed.

"How're you feeling," Ron asked.

"Brilliant," Harry replied sarcastically. "What happened?"

"Well, you fell off your broomstick."

"I meant with the match."

"No one blames you, Harry," Hermione finally said. "Dementors aren't allowed inside the grounds. Dumbledore was furious." She didn't bother to point out that he wasn't the only one to have been affected by so many Dementors in one place. Dumbledore had all the teachers usher everyone to the Great Hall for hot cocoa while he levitated Harry to the hospital wing. Hermione and the team were all given pieces of chocolate while they waited for Harry to wake up.

Harry looked around. "We didn't lose?"

"Cedric got the snitch right after you fell. He didn't realize what happened - tried to schedule a rematch - but even Wood says he won fair and square," Angelina said.

"Where is Wood?" Harry asked.

"Still in the locker room. I think he's trying to drown himself," Katie Bell said.

"I'm sorry," Harry mumbled.

"Don't worry about it," Fred said bracingly.

"Yeah, you're still the best seeker we've ever had," George added.

"There's something else," Ron said nervously.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"Well, when you fell, your broomstick sort of drifted into the Whomping Willow and..." he tipped the broken broomstick pieces onto Harry's bed. "Well, you know the Whomping Willow. It doesn't like getting hit."

Harry looked devastated.

After dinner, Ron and Hermione headed back to visit Harry in the hospital wing again.

"What're you gonna do about your broomstick, mate," Ron asked.

Harry shrugged. "I'll have to get a new one, I guess. I'm more worried about what to do about the Dementors. What if they show up at the next match?"

"Be thankful that it'll be Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw and hope Cedric falls off his broom?" Ron said, joking weakly.

Hermione knew that Harry meant the next match he was playing in. "Why don't you ask professor Lupin," Hermione suggested. "He made that one on the train go away."

Harry nodded and the conversation turned to other things.


	9. Keeping Secrets

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Nine - Keeping Secrets**

Hermione used her time-turner Sunday night to go back and do Snape's werewolf essay. She had almost forgotten about it due to the Dementors at the quidditch match. She and Ron had been spending all their time in the hospital wing with Harry. She would have liked to remind them about the essay too, but she knew it wouldn't have made any difference. With their loathing of Snape, they were probably planning on boycotting the essay anyway.

The next morning passed like usual. Malfoy was celebrating Gryffindor's loss by finally "recovering" from his injuries and spent most of the morning doing spirited imitations of Harry falling off his broom. Ron finally lost it during Potions class and flung a large, slippery crocodile heart at Malfoy, which hit him in the face and caused Snape to take fifty points. Ron didn't really care about the loss of points. It was far better than another detention of scrubbing bedpans. Ron and Harry both left immediately for lunch, but Hermione stayed and turned in her werewolf essay to professor Snape who glared at her, but accepted.

"If Snape's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I'm skiving off," said Ron as they headed towards Lupin's classroom after lunch. "Check who's in there, Hermione."

She peered around the classroom door. "It's okay. Lupin's back."

Everyone in the class started complaining to Professor Lupin about Snape's behavior. Nearly everyone had decided not to do the essay, due to outrage, and finally Lupin smiled again and assured them that he would talk to Professor Snape and they wouldn't have to do the essay.

"But I've already done it," Hermione said, looking very disappointed.

**oOoOo**

Hermione got her werewolf essay back at the end of her next potions lesson. She was rather surprised that Snape had bothered to grade it, seeing as Professor Lupin had undoubtedly talked to him out of demanding the assignment. As usual, Snape had had to begrudgingly give her high marks, though no extra points were awarded to the house cup for doing something she was already "supposed" to do. One of Snape's comments on her paper was very interesting.

_Miss Granger,_

_You spent the entire essay on recognizing a werewolf in his wolf form, yet you made no analysis on recognizing a werewolf in his human form. _

Well, that was an odd thing for Professor Snape to have said, she thought. Hermione tucked the essay into her bag intent on rereading it later and finished her classes for the day.

**oOoOo**

It was just before bed when Hermione remembered her essay. Whenever she got an essay back she would reread it and cross reference anything new she had learned between the time of submission and return. Then she would add any new notes that the professor's had given to her and file it away for use in review for the exams.

She reread the essay, seeing one or two comments here or there from Professor Snape, mostly snide remarks about how obvious her statements were or the redundancy of her sentences. When she reached the conclusion and reread his last comment, she realized that Professor Snape was absolutely right. She had completely disregarded the werewolf's human form.

She shuddered. Maybe she had done that subconsciously, knowing that she was supposed to outline the ways in which to kill a werewolf. It didn't seem right to be killing a human unless he was in his werewolf form and out of control. Even then it didn't seem _right_, but at least it was more justified. She frowned and nibbled on her bottom lip. Professor Snape was right though. It was important to be able to identify a werewolf in his human form so one would know to avoid them on the full moon. With that resolve, she pulled out her book and started adding to the end of her essay.

**oOoOo**

It was after midnight. Hermione had been done adding things to her essay for quite some time now, but instead of going up to bed, she was still just sitting in the common room. She was in shock. Professor Lupin was a werewolf. All the classes he had missed due to "being ill" were on full moons, and she finally realized that the boggart he had battled had turned into the image of a full moon. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed before!

So why hadn't she? Because she liked Professor Lupin. He was kind and the best Defense teacher they'd had. Clearly Professor Snape knew about Lupin's ... er, condition, and Hermione was willing to bet her favorite book that the rest of the staff knew as well. She slapped herself in the face. _Of course_ Snape knew! He must be the one making Lupin's Wolfsbane potion. That's what was in the smoking goblet that Harry had seen.

Hermione warred with herself. Should she tell Harry and Ron? She couldn't quite bring herself to. Harry wouldn't care, but Ron... ? He might have problems accepting it, seeing as werewolf propaganda was very negative in the wizarding world.

She sighed. No, she wouldn't tell Harry and Ron. Instead she vowed that this was another secret she would keep.


	10. Rumors

Woot! I am catching up.

So, most everything has been updated. I really hope you're all enjoying the changes. Sorry the last chapter was so short but it was really an event all its own.

I want to give a big shout out to my four newest subscribers: ImaBiteChu, MaxximusPrime, candokid1, and Charlie300895!

Thank you all!

*Points to the Review button at the bottom of the page and gives everyone puppy dog eyes.*

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Ten - Rumors**

November passed by quickly. Hermione was nervously avoiding Professor Lupin in the halls, though she tried to act as normal as possible otherwise. She just couldn't help but think _He's a werewolf_ every time she saw him, nor could she avoid counting down the days til the next full moon. She really wished that she could talk to him about it... but what would happen if he found out she knew?

At least Harry was feeling better. Ravenclaw flattened Hufflepuff in their Quidditch match at the end of November and Hermione was glad to see Harry's mood take a definite upturn. Quidditch practices were becoming more frequent despite the weather, but it seemed to be helping.

Hermione managed to make it through November without too much difficulty because thankfully there were no more rows with Ron about Crookshanks and no sign of Sirius Black. The only problem was Sir Cadogan, the crazy knight that had replaced the Fat Lady. He spent half his time challenging people to duels or making up complicated passwords that he changed sometimes as much as twice a day. At least he wasn't smart enough to spot her time discrepancies if she time-turned in Gryffindor Tower.

November passed into December and Hermione and Ron talked about staying at Hogwarts over Christmas break to be with Harry. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

**oOoOo**

It was Wednesday December 10th.****** Hermione had just finished another triple elective hour and was in the girl's bathroom on the 6th floor. She was just sitting on the toilet with the lid down (after an extensive cleaning charm over the entire cubicle) and was working on an Ancient Runes essay for Professor Babbling when she heard a couple of girls come in talking about Professor Lupin.

There were three voices that Hermione could make out, and they were all joking with each other as they stood somewhere to Hermione's left - probably fixing their hair in the mirrors. Hermione listened intently.

"I mean, he's a fabulous teacher, and if he wasn't so old, he'd be kind of hot," one voice said.

A giggle and an 'ew' responded to this pronouncement.

_Must be 6th or 7th years_ Hermione assumed because she didn't think anyone younger would be talking about professors being 'hot'.

"Professor Lupin is probably old enough to be your father. That's not hot."

"He's not nearly as old as he looks, but I guess you're right. Still, it's nice to have another younger teacher around besides Snape."

"Oh don't even go into that again," the third voice said. "Tall, dark and slimy is not attractive either."

"Did you notice that Professor Lupin looked tired again?" Hermione tried keeping track of the voices as best she could but sometimes she wasn't sure how had asked the question.

"Yeah, though I don't know why. Hangovers don't usually last three days, do they? Unless you think he hits the bottle before bed?"

"I suppose that would account for it. Pity though."

Hermione gasped. She hadn't meant to, but she did. These girls were accusing Professor Lupin of being an alcoholic!

"Who's there?"

At first Hermione didn't know what to do. Should she get up and show herself, or should she just speak? And what was she supposed to say to these older girls about professor Lupin? She cleared her throat.

"Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop. But do you really think Professor Lupin is a drunk," she called from her stall, hoping her voice didn't quaver.

"Wicked isn't it? But there's no way to know for sure. He just doesn't usually look so hung over," the leader of the voices responded.

Hermione was thinking fast. The full moon had been just two days ago. This must have been the first day Professor Lupin had been back to class. What should she do? Could she maybe spread more rumors to keep people from figuring out his secret? "I suppose it makes since, though a -" what grade and what house should she use? "- a 5th year Ravenclaw -" (_Oh, please don't let them be from Ravenclaw_) "- told me that she heard Professor Lupin was in St. Mungo's this weekend."

"Really?" One of the voices asked eagerly.

"That's what I heard," Hermione said. "But a Gryffindor told me that Professor Lupin was an undercover Auror and was leaving the school now and then for some important Ministry thing."

Well, that had done it. The other three voices started spinning even more ridiculous ideas about Professor Lupin's 'secret life' and left the bathroom. Hermione sighed hoping she had not made things worse.

**oOoOo**

When Hermione joined Ron and Harry for lunch, she could hear the gossip circling. How could her rumors have spread to most of the school in just under an hour? Well, at least most of the rumors had been sufficiently distorted, and more than once she swore she heard someone exclaim, "That's complete bollocks!" At least now people would wonder what mysterious things Lupin was up to when he 'left the castle' and wouldn't connect it to the full moon, and that was something.

**oOoOo**

The next two and a half weeks passed without incident. Thank goodness for the short attention span of teenagers! The rumors about Lupin were quickly dismissed and overshadowed by the upcoming holidays, including the next Hogsmeade trip that was scheduled the Saturday before winter break.

Harry's mood quickly deteriorated again as he knew he'd be the only third year left behind again.

Like last time, Hermione and Ron banded together to try to cheer him up and promised another lot of sweets. Hermione also hinting that he'd be getting double Christmas presents this year, which caused the corners of his mouth to twitch.

****I really went and looked up the lunar calendar for December of 2003. Most authors, astronomers, etc. tend to agree that a full moon lasts 3 days before there is a noticeable waning. In this case, peak of the full moon was on Monday December 8th, which means he missed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and came back to teach someone's class on Wednesday. I apologize if that wasn't more clear, but with the way Hogwarts schedules seem to randomly change I hope it's not too far out of the realm of possibility.**


	11. Really Upset

*Goes back to bribing readers with cookies for reviews and then adds a glass of chocolate milk to go with it*

I know I'm updating regularly, but please, please, please, please, please review! Just say hi or tell me what your favorite soda is. Anything. I'll even take nasty remarks about how bad my writing is and just smile and say Thank you! =)

*Sighs* Oh well. Can't blame a girl for trying.

Mega shouts to Isabella97 for pestering me in the way I love! =D

Shouts also to new fans: SaikaHan and Sakurablossom142!

Ever notice how in PoA chapter 10 (The Marauder's Map) when Harry, Ron and Hermione overhear the story of Sirius cornering Pettrigrew and blowing up the street that they never mention Remus as being part of James's group of friends? It was done intentionally, but it still bugs me. lol

Oh, one other thing. Does anyone know if the New Moon has the same effect on a werewolf as the Full Moon? Cuz the next chapter is going to be able Christmas and Lupin was "sick" on Christmas, which would have aligned perfectly with the New Moon. But if that's the case then that means Professor Lupin would be sick every two weeks! That seems like a little much, doesn't it? *Gets a headache cure*

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Eleven - Really Upset**

Hermione and Ron left with the rest of the school that was going for Hogsmeade on Saturday. The Hogwarts Express would be taking all those going home for the holidays tomorrow so nearly everyone that could go _was_ going to Hogsmeade for last minute Christmas shopping.

Hermione and Ron wandered around together, shopping in some of the same stores but being respectful of the need to get presents for each other secretly. Once they finished, they headed to Honeyduke's to get Harry more sympathetic "We're sorry you couldn't come with us" candy.

Last time they had each gotten an extra bit of anything they thought looked good (meaning that Ron grabbed everything in sight and Hermione chuckled and paid for half). This time they were picking and choosing with a little more care and branching out. They were in the Unusual Tastes section, looking at blood-flavored lollipops.

"Ugh, no, Harry won't want one of those, they're for vampires, I expect," Hermione was saying.

"How about these?" said Ron, shoving a jar of cockroach clusters under her nose.

"Definitely not," said Harry from behind them, nearly causing Ron to drop the jar.

Hermione spun around, her heart beating wildly. "_Harry_!" she squealed. "What are you doing here? How - when - how?" She was having a hard time forming a coherent sentence.

"Wow!" said Ron, looking very impressed, "you've learned to Apparate!"

" 'Course I haven't," Harry said. He dropped his voice and told them all about Fred, George and the Marauder's Map.

Ron was jealous and Hermione was worried. _Hogwarts, A History_ never said anything about passages leading into the village. What if Sirius Black knew about them? Was that how he got into the castle on Halloween? Hermione told Harry to turn the map in to professor McGonagall. Harry and Ron both looked at her like she was crazy. Why were they making her feel like it was wrong to care?

"Are you going to report me?" Harry asked her when her stuttered objections had died away.

"Well, no, but honestly, Harry I -"

Ron cut her off and dragged Harry over to look at the rest of the sweets.

**oOoOo**

After twenty minutes more of Honeydukes they decided to brave the weather outside so Harry could get a look at the village. Unfortunately, snow was coming down hard and Harry hadn't remembered a cloak in his excitement to get out of the castle.

They didn't stay outside long before Ron suggested The Three Broomsticks. "You'll love butterbeer. It really warms you up," he told Harry, leading the way.

Once inside Ron's face reddened when he said, "I'll get the drinks, shall I?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. Ron's admiration of the curvy barmaid Madam Rosmerta was something she couldn't get her head around. She watched Harry's eyes follow Ron up to the counter but he didn't seem nearly as taken with the woman's revealing robes and turquoise high-heeled shoes. _At least Harry has some maturity._

"Come on," Hermione said instead, leading the way to an empty table in the back near the fireplace and a decorative Christmas tree. Ron joined them about five minutes later carrying three foaming tankards of hot butterbeer.

"Merry Christmas!" he said happily, raising his tankard.

Hermione giggled and she and Harry toasted with Ron before drinking. It was nice, sitting there warming up in silence, just enjoying the warmth spreading to their fingertips as they drank.

Hermione looked over at Harry in alarm as he gasped, his eyes trained on the door that had just opened to admit more people. Hermione and Ron's heads snapped in the same direction for in came Professors McGonagall and Flitwick followed by Hagrid and Cornelius Fudge, the Minster of Magic.

Hermione and Ron looked at each other in horror and simultaneously placed a hand on Harry's head and shoved him down under the table. Hermione was sorry that their actions had caused Harry to spill all his butterbeer on himself, but it had to be better than getting caught, right? For added protection, Hermione used her wand to move the Christmas tree in front of their table, hiding all three of them from view.

**oOoOo**

Hermione sat, listening to the professors' tale about Sirius Black and Harry's parents with increasing horror. She gripped her butterbeer tankard so hard that, if it hadn't been magically reinforced for that reason, she would have broken it.

Sirius Black was Harry's Godfather? He had been the Potters' secret keeper and betrayed them? Hermione felt a tear slide down her face. How could they have not known what Black was? Friends for all those years and over in a matter of minutes.

As soon as the teachers had left and Madam Rosmerta's shiny shoes had gone back behind the bar, Hermione and Ron looked under the table for Harry. Hermione thought he looked hurt, shocked, betrayed, as well as a few other emotions. She could probably only guess at what was going through his head, and she had no words of comfort to give him.

**oOoOo**

Ron and Hermione escorted Harry back into Honeydukes and kept the proprietor busy while Harry slipped back down the stairs to the cellar. She secretly hoped that Harry wouldn't do anything rash without them.

Hermione and Ron walked back to the castle in silence. Hermione was nervously fiddling with the handle of the bag containing her day's purchases, and thinking about how the holidays had been somewhat tainted by the tale they had just heard. She knew she would have to speak to Ron about it all later.

**oOoOo**

Hermione let out a small breath of relief when Harry met them for dinner in the Great Hall. He had apparently taken a shower and changed out of his butterbeer soaked robes. He didn't say much as he sat down, but there were too many people around to talk about things at the moment.

Hermione watched Harry nervously all through dinner. She knew that he must be all torn up inside, and she suspected that the silence was making things worse.

She watched as he finished dinner and waited for her and Ron to finish also, probably hoping to talk in the common room. Unfortunately, when they climbed through the portrait hole, it was to find Fred and George had set off half a dozen Dungbombs in a fit of end-of-term high spirits, and Harry disappeared up the stairs to the boys' dormitories immediately. Ron moved to follow, but Hermione stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"I think we should leave it until everyone goes home tomorrow," Hermione said.

Ron nodded, and together they sat in a corner, though they didn't speak until Fred and George came over asking why they were so glum. Ron turned a bit red and said it was nothing and Hermione said, "Just tired from a long day, I guess."

**oOoOo**

Hermione went to bed early, after telling Ron that they would talk in the morning. Ron nodded and left to check on Harry but returned saying that he was asleep already. Hermione sighed and told Ron that he might not have been sleeping, but it was probably better to leave him alone. They'd talk to him in the morning.

Hermione slept badly, having multiple nightmares. Some were about being betrayed by Harry or Ron, while others were about getting attacked by a werewolf. After a specifically terrifying dream, Hermione sat up to find Crookshanks staring at her. She stroked his fur for a few minutes, trying to get the memories of the dreams to fad. The most comforting thought Hermione had before trying to go back to sleep again was that Professor Lupin had the Wolfsbane potion and wasn't attacking anyone, and he had no connection to Sirius Black.

**oOoOo**

The next morning, Hermione awoke to find Ron already in the common room waiting for her. There were still a lot of people around since the Hogwarts Express wouldn't be leaving until after breakfast, so she and Ron went down together with Neville and said goodbye to their housemates before returning to the common room after they were done eating.

Ron flopped into one of the good armchairs by the fire and sighed contentedly. "It's so nice when the common room is empty like this."

Hermione took the chair beside him for a moment and then stood again.

"Where you going?" Ron asked her.

"To get my homework."

"But it's the first day of the holidays! And I thought we were going to talk about Harry and Sirius Black and all that stuff."

"We can do that while I work. I'll be just a moment."

Hermione came back from the empty girls' dorms with her bag over her shoulder and started rearranging the tables so that she had three at her disposal. Ron watched her quietly for a moment as she organized her homework and when she paused he cleared his throat.

"So...?" Ron asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I don't know what to do anymore than you do, Ron," she finally said. "All we can really do is be here for Harry. To keep him from doing anything rash."

Ron nodded. "He's probably really upset."

"Very observant. I don't think 'really upset' can even cover it. I mean, it was a lot of information. I mean, it sounded like Black was as close to Harry's parents as we are to each other. How would you feel if Harry betrayed you and your family to You-know-who?"

Ron's face darkened. "I'd want to hunt him down and make him pay," Ron snarled.

"Exactly. But we mustn't let Harry think like that. We want to keep him safe, right?"

Ron nodded. He frowned when Crookshanks plodded down from the girls' dormitories and hastily picked up Scabbers and put him in his pocket.

"So what should we say to Harry?" Ron asked after a moment.

"We should tell him not to do anything stupid and that we're here for him."

**oOoOo**

The conversation with Harry did not go so well. Neither Hermione nor Ron had realized that Harry's thoughts had gone so far out of control to begin contemplating taking Malfoy's advice to go off on his own to hunt down Sirius Black and kill him.

In one last attempt to get Harry's mind of things, Ron suggested going down to visit Hagrid. They did, and while that visit hadn't been exactly pleasant (with Hagrid bawling about Buckbeak's looming trial) at least Harry had calmed down enough to be a little more reasonable about Sirius Black.


	12. Christmas Comforts

Well, I'd still like your opinions on the New Moon vs Full Moon thing, but I've decided to have Lupin just have the plain old flu for Christmas even though in the book Dumbledore specifically asked Snape, "Severus, you've made the potion for him again?" I dunno what Rowling intended, but she seemed to be pressing the werewolf angle again. Seeing as she has already messed with the calendar plenty of times to suit her needs, I decided to counter her and mess with it just as much. =P

Shouts to all my new favorite peoples: Jous, Lady Weskter, Fionn Rose, and Charlie McKay!

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and/or added me to alerts or favorites. Virtual cookies for all! (And chocolate milk)

Many people commented saying MORE REMUS/HERMIONE STUFF! Believe me, I am working on it. =D There will be plenty to occupy the following chapters because Harry and Ron end up ignoring Hermione for 2 months because of the Firebolt and Scabbers's "death". Consider all this background from 3rd year as "Part 1". =D

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Twelve - Christmas Comforts**

After their talk with Hagrid, Hermione, Harry and Ron had spent the first few days of the winter holidays in the library researching anything that might help Hagrid win his case against the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. They hadn't had any luck yet, but Hermione was sure they would find something. The library had never let her down before.

On Christmas morning, Hermione woke up feeling well rested, a pleased smile coming to her face at the sight of the pile of presents at the foot of her bed, which she started unwrapping immediately, using some of the tinsel to tie a festive bow around Crookshanks's neck. He didn't seem to like it much, but it made Hermione happy.

Her haul was the usual collection of books, toothbrushes and dental floss from her family, a homemade fruitcake from Hagrid (which she planned to throw out), a sweater from Mrs. Weasley as well as some nut brittle and other Christmas treats, a new journal from Ron (he even remembered that her favorite color was purple), and a set of new quills from Harry.

Hermione laughed, thinking that Harry and Ron had been working together for presents this year (which they had). She was about to go see if they were awake yet when she noticed one more present under the others.

That was odd. She counted present givers on her fingers and thought everyone was accounted for. Who could this present be from? She picked it up and removed the wrappings, uncovering a used book on Animagus transformations, and a card.

_To the brightest witch of her age,_

_Merry Christmas. I thought you would enjoy this book. I found it amongst my possessions, having received it from a very good friend many years ago. I think it is time to pass it on, and you seemed like the right person to have it._

_Remus Lupin_

Hermione beamed and excitedly flipped through the pages. She couldn't believe Professor Lupin had remembered. Then she stopped, as all the giddiness evaporated and her stomach plummeted. Professor Lupin was a werewolf. But that shouldn't matter... right? He was a good teacher, polite, kind, funny... he just had a little problem. And that wasn't even his fault. He was clearly taking precautions, and Dumbledore trusted him enough to hire him...

Hermione looked at the book in her hand and opened the cover to see who it had originally belonged to, but there was no name. She was torn, but still deeply touched that Professor Lupin had remembered their conversation from over two months ago. She hugged the book, promised herself to thank Professor Lupin in person, and then picked up Crookshanks and headed to Ron and Harry's dormitory.

"What are you two laughing about?" Hermione asked as she entered the room, setting Crookshanks down on Seamus's bed.

"Don't bring him in here!" said Ron, hurriedly snatching Scabbers from the depths of his bed and stowing him in his pajama pocket.

Hermione wasn't listening. She was staring, open-mouthed, at the new broom in Harry's lap.

"Oh, _Harry_! Who sent you _that_?"

"No idea," said Harry. "There wasn't a card or anything with it."

"Isn't that odd? I mean, that's supposed to be quite a good broom, isn't it?"

Ron sighed exasperatedly. "It's a Firebolt - best broom there is, Hermione," he said.

"So it must have been really expensive..."

"Probably cost more than all the Slytherins' brooms put together," said Ron happily.

"Well... who'd send Harry something as expensive as that, and not even tell him they'd sent it?" said Hermione.

Harry frowned in thought. Ron dismissed Hermione's last comment with a wave. "Who cares?" said Ron impatiently. "Listen, Harry, can I have a go on it? Can I?"

"I don't think anyone should ride that broom just yet!" said Hermione shrilly.

Harry and Ron looked at her.

"What d'you think Harry's going to do with it - sweep the floor?" said Ron.

Before Hermione could respond, Crookshanks sprang from Seamus's bed, right at Ron's chest.

**oOoOo**

Hermione spent the rest of the morning glaring at Harry and Ron. Ron was ignoring her too, which kept her from retaliating, but Harry... Harry honestly acted like he couldn't see anything wrong with getting the newest most expensive broom in the wizarding world anonymously. Honestly, boys could be so thick sometimes! That broom was probably sent by Sirius Black and would be holding a whole bunch of dark spells designed to hurt Harry. Why couldn't he see that.

At lunch time, Hermione went down with Harry and Ron, intent on telling Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She was distracted by the festivities, which managed to make her feel a bit better (it was Christmas day after all) until Professor Trelawney arrived. Hermione was growing very weary of the fraud, but what could she do? She blinked when Dumbledore answered a question, saying that Professor Lupin was sick. Hermione counted on her fingers, but it was a New moon, so he wasn't locked in his office due to his transformation.

The rest of the meal proceeded almost calmly, despite Professor Trelawney's presence, until Harry and Ron stood first from the table. Thankfully Professor McGonagall managed to distract her so that Harry and Ron could escape. As soon as they were gone, Hermione turned to professor McGonagall.

"Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall asked, looking over at her.

"Might I have a word?"

"Of course."

Professor McGonagall and Hermione stood from the table and made their way towards the entrance hall. Hermione cleared her throat. "Professor, Harry was sent a Firebolt for Christmas."

McGonagall's face lit up at the news. Harry got the best broom available, hopefully that'll help Gryffindor finally win the Quidditch cup away from the Slytherins. She was imagining the look on Severus Snape's face, when she realized that Hermione was still waiting for a response. Minerva tried to contain herself and simply asked, "Who from?"

Hermione bit her lip. "That's just it, professor. There was no note." She took a deep breath. "Professor, what if - what if it was sent by Sirius Black?"

McGonagall nodded curtly and said she'd be up to the Gryffindor common room in a few minutes.

**oOoOo**

Hermione cried herself to sleep that night. What a miserable Christmas it had turned out to be. Harry and Ron were mad at her even though she thought she had a valid point. What if the broom _was_ from Sirius Black? What if Harry had started flying on it and got hurt? She was only trying to protect him. And now he was mad at her... all because of a stupid broom!

She didn't sleep well, and when she came down to the common room the next day, Ron and Harry glared at her, before turning their backs and ignoring her. She bit her lip to try to keep from crying and ran off to the library, where she tried to get her mind back under control by looking through more books for Hagrid.

After about two hours she gave up. She was too hurt to focus, so she left the library and wandered down the corridors, up and down multiple staircases, until she found herself outside Professor Lupin's door. She wondered how she had got there - she hadn't been planning on going to see him - but now that she was there, she couldn't think of anyone she'd rather turn to.

Hesitantly, she knocked.

Professor Lupin opened the door. His hair was unkempt, his nose was red, his eyes looked watery, and he was in pajamas and a dressing gown. Before he could say anything, a large sneeze over took him and he closed the door fractionally to keep from spraying Hermione in the face.

"Hermione," he managed to say in greeting.

Now that Hermione was here she was at a loss for what to say. She finally managed a small, "I wanted to thank you for the book."

Despite being sick, Professor Lupin's smile lit up his whole face. "I thought you'd like that," he said thickly through a stuffed nose.

Hermione nodded, smiling back. "It was really unexpected. I guess I didn't think you'd remember something like that." She peered up at him. "I'm sorry you're sick," she said finally.

Lupin chuckled. "This is the first time I've had the flu in ... oh, years. Usually it's -" he stopped short and cleared his throat. "- other things," he finished.

Hermione nodded again. She knew he meant his lycanthropy, but didn't want to get his nerves up, so she decided to placate him. "Professor Dumbledore mentioned it yesterday at lunch. I hope you're taking the potions Professor Snape is making for you."

Lupin chuckled again. "Yes, Severus has oh so helpfully been brewing for my benefit, and believe me when I say I have been taking _all _of them."

Hermione chuckled too, secretly relieved at the hidden message of Wolfsbane potions as well. She was getting a headache. She knew, but he didn't know she knew, and she didn't know if she should tell him that she knew so that he would. She decided that even though she really would have appreciated having someone to talk to about the whole Harry and Ron thing that now was not the best time. "Well, I'll let you get back to bed then," she said. "I hope you feel better."

Lupin nodded, stifling another sneeze. "Thank you, Hermione."

"You're welcome, professor." She nodded once before turning to make her way back to the library.

"Oh, and Hermione?"

She turned back to face Professor Lupin.

"Since I didn't see you yesterday - Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, professor."


	13. Christmas Comforts Part 2

So sorry everyone for the delay in updates. Amazingly enough, I actually had GUESTS! 3 days straight of people everywhere I turned! Bad excuse, I know, but the truth is usually pretty lame, lol.

Thank you MapleandPheonixFeather for responding to whether or not a New Moon effects a werewolf! I had already reached my decision, but I appreciate the confirmation you provided. =D

As always, feedback is welcomed and the offer of Cookies and Chocolate Milk still stand. I've also got regular milk if the chocolate milk is not to your liking. =D

I must also apologize for the misleading chapter title last time. Chapter 12 should be "Christmas" and Chapter 13 should be "Comforts" cuz like a silly person I went and split them up. I have compromised and made this chapter "Christmas Comforts" Part 2. Again, sorry about the confusion.

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Thirteen - Christmas Comforts (Part 2)**

Hermione cried herself to sleep every night for the rest of the week. Harry and Ron still weren't talking to her, so she took to avoiding the common room. She was still trying to look up useful material for Hagrid, in addition to all her homework she still had to do, and consequently went to see him more than a few times, as Professor Lupin was still sick.

She didn't want to impose herself on Professor Lupin, though she would have loved to talk more about animagi with him. Hermione knew that professor McGonagall would be a better person to turn to if she had questions about the transformation process, but Hermione felt that professor Lupin was a better person to discuss the theories with. Werewolves couldn't be animagi, could they? Hermione dismissed the errant thought and went back to her work.

**oOoOo**

Sunday December 28th, was the first day Hermione saw Professor Lupin back in the Great Hall for meals - him looking much better and her looking worse. She was keeping herself as busy as possible to avoid thinking about Sirius Black, Ron, Harry, Lupin's lycanthropy, Crookshanks, Scabbers, and her time-turner.

Needless to say, she was failing miserably.

Hermione was lonely. But she wouldn't apologize to Harry and Ron for doing what she thought was right. Eventually they would realize her intentions had been good and would come around... hopefully.

In the meantime, Hermione had been attending meals as early as possible so that she could be done and gone by the time Harry and Ron finally made it to the Great Hall. Lunch time was no exception after a spectacularly unproductive morning in the library. Hermione noticed that Professor Lupin was there again, and reasoned with herself that perhaps she should see if he was available to talk for a while that afternoon, so she finished her food and set out for his third floor classroom.

She knew that Professor Lupin wasn't in his office, as she had left the Great Hall before him, so she sat down against the wall to wait. She pulled out the book on animagus transformations that he had given her for Christmas, and started reading.

She was about three chapters in, when Professor Lupin's chuckle distracted her. "Enjoying the book, I see."

Hermione tucked it back into her bag and stood up. "Yes. It's wonderful."

Lupin motioned for Hermione to precede him through the door. "I'm surprised you haven't finished it already."

"Oh, I have," Hermione told him, giving a smile. "I often reread my books. Especially if I enjoy them."

"Ah," was all Lupin said. He took a seat and motioned for her to do that same.

Hermione sat, trying to figure out what to say. She always had this problem around Professor Lupin now. She felt like she had to walk on eggshells, making sure not to slip up and reveal that she knew that he was a werewolf. Clearly she had to think up some excuse as to why she was waiting outside his classroom for him.

"I just came by to talk to you about it, actually. I thought about going to Professor McGonagall about it, seeing as she is an animagus, but I didn't really have any questions. I just wanted to discuss the theory, and since you gave me the book..." she trailed off.

"Did you ever think that I might be an animagus," Lupin asked her jokingly.

"Are you?" she asked immediately, having already reached a conclusion on this matter, but feeling anxious that maybe she had assumed incorrectly.

"No," he answered. "Not for a lack of trying though."

Hermione wasn't sure if he was joking or not, but in a way it made sense that Professor Lupin might try to become an animagus. It would give him a feeling of control over such a change for once. Hermione realized that perhaps discussing animagi was a bad idea, but Professor Lupin didn't seem to be bothered by it.

"You said you'd already read the entire book?" he asked, getting an affirmative nod from Hermione. "So what did you think about the author's descriptions of the various examples he used?"

"I was impressed, though it was clear that he was just relating second-hand descriptions from other people. There's no way one person would be able to have 17 animagus forms themselves. It's just not possible."

"How do you know?"

"A person can only have one form."

"That's not a proven fact."

"But all the registered animagi at the ministry only have one form."

"That doesn't mean that multiple forms are impossible, just unlikely."

Hermione frowned, trying to find another argument, but Professor Lupin just smiled.

"I, myself, knew a very gifted witch who had two animagus forms." He winked at her. "So, like I said, uncommon, but not impossible."

Hermione nodded. "In that case, I will try to get three forms."

Lupin laughed.

**oOoOo**

The conversation with professor Lupin lasted a good hour before Hermione took her leave. She felt marginally better afterwards, which was good enough to get more of her work done before dinner. She still cried herself to sleep that night though, and the next morning she found herself planning to visit Professor Lupin again.

He found her, once again, seated outside his office door after lunch. Hermione thought she heard him chuckle, but he welcomed her warmly all the same.

"Hermione, this is a pleasant surprise. Did you come back for more animagus discussions?"

"Not exactly, sir," she said as she preceded Professor Lupin through the door again. He was such a gentleman, she realized.

"Then to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Um, I just..."

Lupin looked at her curiously and Hermione felt herself blush. Why couldn't she think up an excuse or reason?

"Something the matter, Hermione?"

"No, I'm fine," she replied automatically, her cheeks tinting a bit more. "I just... well it's Harry and Ron."

Hermione then proceeded to explain why Harry and Ron weren't speaking to her (omitting her thoughts about Sirius Black) and how she had just needed someone to talk to. Lupin was as sympathetic as he could be while laughing.

"I apologize for laughing, but you have to understand that quidditch is such a huge part of the wizarding world that _most _people would be mad at having their brooms taken away, despite the reason."

"But it could've been jinxed!"

Lupin finally stopped laughing and looked at her intently. His brow furled and he asked, "There's more to this than a simple miscommunication about a broomstick and a 'silly sport'. You think the broom was sent by Sirius Black?"

Hermione had purposely avoided mentioning that fact to Professor Lupin, but now she had no choice but to admit it. "I'm worried. Who else would have sent such a good broom to Harry anonymously? I mean, he's _Harry Potter_. Anyone else would be bragging."

Lupin nodded thoughtfully. "You really care about Harry... and Ron, don't you?"

Hermione nodded, a tear escaping to trail down her cheek.

**oOoOo**

Professor Lupin had reassured her that Ron and Harry would eventually come to their senses. She would just have to wait it out, because 13-year-old boys were really thick headed.

Hermione knew he was right, but she couldn't get over how lonely and hurt she felt about it. She cried herself asleep again hoping to just eventually run out of a tears. The next day she went back to Professor Lupin's office after lunch.

This time, Hermione didn't even have to sit down, as Professor Lupin had followed her from the Great Hall and walked two steps behind her all the way to his office in silence. He opened the door for her and then took his customary seat.

"I could tell from your face that you'd be coming here again," Professor Lupin began kindly. "Boys still being dumb?"

Hermione nodded, with a sigh. "I really don't want to talk about them right now," she said. "We did that yesterday and it didn't change anything, though I appreciate that you were - _are_ - willing to listen."

"Of course," Lupin said softly. "I understand. Fights with close friends are hard." He cast his mind around for a safer topic of conversation. "So what electives did you sign up for?"

Hermione contemplated her answer. "Oh, everything," she said nonchalantly.

Lupin chuckled, but then seemed to realize that Hermione probably wasn't joking. "Everything?" he asked.

"Yes. I didn't want to miss out on anything."

"That's a hefty work load to take on at your age."

"I can handle it."

"Oh, I have no doubts about that," he reassured. "It's just that you'll end up looking a bit like me - prematurely grey," he joked, pointing to his hair. "By not wanting to 'miss out on anything' may I assume that you come from a non-magic household?"

"Yes, I'm a muggleborn, sir," Hermione said. She hoped professor Lupin wasn't prejudiced, but from the tone of the question she assumed he wasn't.

"I assume you've been asked why you're taking Muggle Studies then already?"

Hermione bristled and then sighed. "Yes I've been asked. As I told Harry, Ron, and Professor Burbage, I really wanted to try to understand how wizards view muggles." She grimaced as she said Harry and Ron's names.

Lupin nodded with a slight frown, having unintentionally brought up the subject he had hoped to avoid. "Do you think you'll take muggle studies all the way to N.E.W.T level, or are you going to give it up after this year?"

"I hadn't thought about it. I'm just trying to get through this year," Hermione said honestly. She was thinking about the time-turner that was currently tucked down the front of her robes.

Lupin nodded. "As a muggle-born witch, I understand wanting to know what the pureblood wizards are taught about muggle culture, but why bother taking the class when you can just appeal to the ministry for the curriculum?"

Hermione frowned. "I didn't realize I could."

"It's uncommon. I've only heard of one or two muggleborns who wanted to go into muggle-related feilds, for which you need an O.W.L. Naturally, if you want to teach Muggle Studies, you'll need a N.E.W.T. There are very few applicable uses for the grade though, and I believe that most wizards that choose to take Muggle Studies are either looking for an easy grade, or told to take it by their parents."

"Sir, did you take muggle studies?"

"No. I probably should have though. I had a few muggleborn friends in school, but their enthusiasm for magic outweighed my interest in their culture. Don't get me wrong, I learned quite a bit, but not near enough to what I should have, I think."

"It's just as well. The muggle studies curriculum is very outdated. I've had to correct Professor Burbage frequently." Hermione paused, having realized just what Professor Lupin had said. "Wait - you're a pureblood?"

Lupin hesitated and Hermione could guess why. Technically being a werewolf meant he was classified now as a creature of near-human intelligence.

After the initial hesitation, he finally answered, "Yes."

Hermione nodded, expecting that answer in terms of the conversation, and decided to react to it in the same way. "All that blood nonsense is ridiculous."

Lupin smiled. "Indeed it is. So how are you liking your other classes?"

"Well, Divination seems like a bunch of rubbish. Professor McGonagall has a poor opinion of Professor Trelawney and so far I have to agree. Harry and Ron are taking it with me, but they're not serious at all."

"True seer's are rare. From what I understand of Divination, the forces of magic help shape whatever medium you are using. Tarot cards are affected that way. Same with crystal balls. Many people can learn to interpret the symbols, but it's still a lot of guesswork. Always having to question what you think you're seeing: Are you sure that's the symbol you're seeing? What does it mean in the reading? etc. That was another class I didn't have much use for. Plus, I never wanted to know what my future held."

Hermione nodded again. "I can understand that. I don't really want to know my future either," though her experiences with the time turner were certainly dispelling many of her original notions about time and fate and destiny.

They moved on to Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, which were the O.W.L.s that Lupin had taken and before they knew it, it was dinner time.


	14. New Year's

Shout outs to new readers Wolfwarriorgirl, LauRawrCait, BookloverAF, Bucklerbri, Alice Hathaway, kk1999, fieryxgirl and immyownsuperman! And big big big big HUGE thank you's to Charlie McKay, Lady Wesker, Alice Hathaway, and SaikaHan for reviews! (As well as cookies and milk)

Ok, so like a silly person I was using the lunar calendar from 2003-2004 instead of 1993-1994. I'm a dumb-dumb but it's too late to change now. I just thought I would tell everyone that I **did** realize my mistake and then chose to ignore it. lol.

And I'm sorry my updates haven't been as frequent this week. I started my summer term at the community college but I'm settling into my schedule and I know when I have time to write. At least I gave you the first taste of some serious Remus/Hermione stuff, and I hope everyone liked it. =D

Here's some more!

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Fourteen - New Year's**

Hermione, though still lonely because of her stupid guy friends, was doing much better now that she had Professor Lupin to talk to. But she knew that she wouldn't be able to sit and talk with him in the same manner once term started again, and that was disappointment looming on the horizon. At the same time, once term started there would be more people around for her to associate with, and would hopefully lessen her loneliness.

New Year's Eve dinner was a spectacular event. The single table was burdened with tons of noise makers and confetti crackers, even though there were only six students to enjoy them. Dinner also had many more sugary treats to be used to stay up until midnight and then crash into bed by 2am. Hermione always hated the feeling of waking up after crashing to a sugar high.

She also was not looking forward to dinner with Harry and Ron, having been avoiding them at all other meals since their fight on Christmas Day, but she had to go. She purposely chose a seat as far away from them as she could, though that also meant that she was far away from Professor Lupin too. She watched as he chatted with Harry and Ron and hoped he wasn't saying anything about her. Neither Harry nor Ron looked at her at all, so she assumed she was safe. _Ugh, they're probably talking about quidditch..._

Hermione ate quickly, but couldn't think of an excuse to leave when Dumbledore was trying so hard to make the evening festive. So she sat, feeling lonely and miserable because the year was ending badly, and (since Harry and Ron still weren't talking to her) it looked like the new year wasn't about to get any better any time soon.

The meal was over with by 9pm, and Dumbledore had everyone stand up so he could banish the table up against the wall to clear the floor for games and dancing. The students went for the games while most of the professors danced. Hermione was asked to dance by Professor Dumbledore who tried to get her to smile by spinning her until she was dizzy and asked to sit down. He chuckled at her and then went to liberate Professor McGonagall from Professor Lupin's arms, as the only dance Minerva every consented to was the waltz. Meanwhile, Professor Flitwick was dancing with Professor Sprout, and Professor Snape had disappeared from the room.

Harry and Ron were playing some of the games with the other Gryffindor boy, but at some point the three of them had changed to stalking the Slytherin 5th year and blasting him with the confetti crackers. Hermione contemplated sneaking out like Snape had done, but was distracted when Professor Lupin approached.

"Hi, Hermione. Having fun?" Lupin asked her with a smile.

"Not really. I think I'll go to bed," she said as she stood and started to leave. She was stopped by a confetti cracker exploding over her head, the confetti settling into her bushy brown hair. Turning around she saw Lupin pretending to look innocent. Despite her melancholy feelings, she was forced to smile. She grabbed a confetti cracker for herself and aimed it at Professor Lupin, where it exploded all over the front of his robes.

He looked down at the front of his robes, and then back up at Hermione who smirked at him. He grinned evilly and let out a little chuckle. "This means war, you know," he teased.

Hermione held up her hands in surrender. "How about a truce instead?"

"Deal," Lupin chuckled as he wiped the front of his robes.

Hermione started trying to get the confetti out of her hair, but such an endeavor appeared to be a waste of effort. She gave up and scowled at Professor Lupin for the inconvenience. He just chuckled again and asked her to dance.

"Don't think a dance will make me forgive you. The confetti's going to be a nightmare to remove," she said as she let Lupin lead her in slow and easy two-step (with no outrageous spinning).

"I can vanish it all for you before you go to bed," he said, keeping her at arms length, only holding her hands for guidance around the room.

"Really? Thank you."

"Of course."

A few moments later, Professors Flitwick and Sprout came over and everyone switched partners again, so Hermione was dancing with Flitwick (even though he was nearly a full head shorter than her). It was fun though as he tried to show her some 'moves' and ended up falling over. Hermione was never one to laugh at people's misfortunes though, and simply apologized (even though it wasn't her fault) and helped him to his feet.

Lupin finally came back her rescue. Flitwick went to dance with McGonagall while Dumbledore danced with Sprout.

"Having fun now?" Lupin asked as they moved over to play Exploding Snap.

"Maybe just a little," Hermione said.

"Looking forward to term resuming?"

"Yes and no."

"More yes than no?"

"Yes because classes will be back in session and everyone else will be here, and no because I'll be too busy to - " Hermione broke off her sentence to keep her from saying something potentially embarrassing. " - to think about anything besides my homework," she finished. She had been about to say, 'too busy to spend time with you' and realized just how bad that sounded.

Either Professor Lupin was reading her mind, or he was just being honest, Hermione couldn't tell. He said, "We'll both be busy, and I'll miss our afternoon chats. I've grown quite fond of them." He smiled at her kindly. "Perhaps you can still drop by for tea in the evenings, or perhaps I'll find you asleep in another empty classroom using another of your essays as a pillow," Lupin said with a teasing smirk.

Hermione laughed. "It's very possible," she conceded.

After a brief pause - a hesitation - Professor Lupin said, "Just don't be too disappointed if I'm not available at various times throughout the month. Things get a bit hectic during term." It was the most he could say about his three day absences without drawing attention to them, though he tried to keep his tone light.

Hermione nodded and said, "I understand." She understood more than he knew. To keep her face from revealing her thoughts, she laid down her cards with a grin. "I win."

**oOoOo**

The rest of the evening passed quickly with Professor Lupin spending the remaining hour or so playing games with Hermione. She stomped him at Exploding Snap, lost at wizarding chess (which she had never been very good at because she had only ever played a few times), and refused to touch the gobstone set. **(((A/N I always imagined Gobstones to be like Mancala)))**

Lupin patiently taught Hermione a bit more about chess, but she still wasn't very good at formulating more than one plan at a time and really didn't have any adaptability. She said that maybe if she read the rules and looked up famous strategies that it would help her, and Lupin replied that chess wasn't just one piece or another; it was the whole set working together as a whole. He told her to think of it like a battle during a war. Hermione cringed. She didn't think she could ever look at the chessboard in the same way again.

At ten minutes til midnight, Dumbledore had everyone run and grab cloaks before leading them out to the clock tower courtyard. It was a beautifully clear night with glistening frost spread all across the grounds. As the clock began to strike midnight, Dumbledore and the other professors all contributed to a magical "fireworks" display. After the clock finished chiming, Dumbledore asked Professor Lupin to lead the four Gryffindors back to their dormitory.

Lupin let Harry and Ron run ahead while the first year trailed along behind him and Hermione. Hermione was eagerly discussing the "fireworks". Lupin explained that the teachers were merely emitting sparks from their wands, and while a witch or wizard can learn how to change the color consciously, each wand will produce a certain color naturally without conscious thought. Lupin's base color was a golden-brown color that matched Hermione's eyes.

The rest of the walk back to the portrait of Sir Cadogan was uneventful, and Hermione went straight to bed. This time she fell asleep on a pillow free from tear stains.


	15. Isn't it Obvious?

Woot! How many people have added me to their favorites? I have no idea, but let's welcome a few more: Thegoddessgirl, Smithback and Green Armadillo-ette!

Thank you to everyone who reads and likes and favorites and reviews and generally supports my story. Platonic love to you all!

*Magicks the ceiling to rain confetti on everyone*

And thanks to Lady Wesker and MapleandPheonixFeather for chapter 14 reviews! =D

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Fifteen - Isn't it Obvious?**

Hermione made sure that all of her homework was done, and then spent as much time as she could with Professor Lupin. There were only three days left of the holidays before everyone came back from break and the castle would be crowded and noisy again. As before, Ron and Harry were still ignoring her, but as long as she kept herself occupied with other things she was surviving.

New Year's day, Hermione ate lunch early again, but noticed that Professor Lupin wasn't there. She practically ran to his office, nearly colliding with Professor Snape in her haste.

"Just because term is not in session doesn't mean I can't give you detention, Miss Granger," Snape said coolly as he peered down his nose at her.

"Sorry, professor," she said, dipping her head down to avoid his gaze.

Snape strode off without another word. Hermione made sure he had gone around the corner before knocking on Professor Lupin's door.

"Come in," his voice called.

Hermione stepped inside and closed the door, looking around quickly to see what Snape had been doing there. A smoking goblet sat on Professor Lupin's desk, so Hermione counted quickly to herself. The next full moon was less than a week away, so Snape had been delivering today's dose of Wolfsbane.

Professor Lupin looked up and smiled. "Hello, Hermione."

"Hello," she replied, trying not to be obvious in her scrutiny of the goblet that Snape had used for the potion. She didn't know much about the potion, because it was a fairly new discovery, and she wondered if the type of goblet it was drunk from was important or not.

She wasn't as subtle as she had hoped to be, and Professor Lupin noticed her gaze. "Another of Severus's remedies," he said with a smile.

Hermione nodded, forcing her eyes away from the goblet. "Of course," she said. "I didn't see you at lunch," Hermione said with a touch of question in her voice.

Lupin chuckled. "That would be because I haven't been to lunch yet. Severus insists on inconveniencing me as much as possible in compensation for all the potions he is brewing, which means that I am frequently waiting for him to decide when he wants to bring them to me." Lupin picked up the goblet and drank, making a face as he did so. Hermione chuckled.

"I'm sure it's not that bad," she said when he raised an eyebrow at her.

"You're right. It's far worse," Lupin said, taking another gulp and shuddering. "You would think that potion inventors would make their concoctions taste better, wouldn't you? Unfortunately, this particular potion is so complex that adding sugar makes it completely useless," and with that he finished off the remaining potion, and set the goblet aside.

Hermione nodded and vowed to look up the Wolfsbane potion in greater detail at a later date. "Will you be heading up for lunch, now?" she asked, wondering what she would do if his answer was yes.

Professor Lupin shook his head. "I don't see a need to leave, since you're already here." He pulled out his wand and summoned another of the Hogwarts trays, and within minutes, lunch was laid out between them. "Help yourself," Lupin said.

Hermione grinned. "I already ate, remember?"

Lupin chuckled. "Yes, I think you may have said something like that. No matter. There's more food here than I can eat alone, so if you change your mind you're welcome to any of it."

"Thank you."

Lupin spent a few moments arranging a plate of food for himself before asking, "So what will we talk about today? We've nearly exhausted our topics of conversation and shouldn't have anything new or exciting to talk about since last night." He chuckled to himself and took a bite of the green beans on his plate.

Hermione smiled. "Speaking of which, you forgot to vanish the confetti from my hair."

"Did I?" Lupin looked at Hermione's bushy mass of curls and shrugged. "Well I don't see any in your hair now. How did you manage?"

"I washed my hair and then spent an hour picking all the pieces out one by one."

At least Lupin had the grace to look castigated. "I am sorry about that."

"It's alright, sir." She flicked a curl from her shoulder. "We just forgot. Next time I'm around confetti blasters though I think I might _Impurvius_ my hair."

Lupin snorted. "I'm not sure how well that would work."

"Maybe I'll bring an umbrella then."

"Opening an umbrella inside is bad luck."

"Ugh, no more fortune-telling or silly superstitions, I hate divination!"

Lupin paused. "You could always drop divination. You've got other classes to make up for it, right?"

Hermione chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. "No, I can handle it," she stated firmly. "I'm not a quitter. I signed up for it and I'll see it through to the end."

**oOoOo**

The rest of the students came back to school on Sunday, arriving in time for dinner. Classes would resume on Monday, and Hermione's nerves were beginning to fray. She spent most of Sunday night checking all her assignments to make sure that everything was done. It was, but that didn't stop Hermione from second guessing herself as she reread her essays looking for spelling mistakes. When she couldn't make any more improvements without ruining everything she'd already done, Hermione packed her school bag and went to bed.

Hermione was up early, having been woken by nightmares about missing classes and failing everything despite her best efforts. She dressed quietly, and took Crookshanks down to the common room with her, where she spent the first half hour of her extremely early morning examining her time-turner.

It was a curious device, and Hermione reckoned that she would never be able to figure out how it worked, but she did notice what Professor McGonagall meant about not aging while using it. From her perspective, time ceased to exist until she caught back up to it. But she didn't understand why she still felt hungry and tired. Even though the "real" time wasn't advancing, Hermione was still living through extra hours. Perhaps she was aging and just wasn't seeing any noticeable signs of it?

Hermione quickly stuffed the chain back down the front of her robes when she heard footsteps on the dormitory stairs, though it turned out to be just a first year girl heading for the loo in her pajamas.

**oOoOo**

Hermione spent most of the Care of Magical Creatures lesson talking to Hagrid about what she had learned so far from the library, while the rest of the class huddled around the bonfire full of salamanders or went to collect more wood. Ron and Harry stayed on the far side of the fire from her, and since Hagrid already knew about the Christmas fight, he didn't say anything.

When Care of Magical Creatures class was over, Hermione was the first one to the trap door for Divination, even though she hated the subject. As the rest of the class joined her, she went to stand beside Lavender and Parvati and offered to dry their wet robes for them. Even though they all shared a dorm, Hermione had never been close to the other girls. After five minutes of their "conversation" she remembered why; they were too girly.

The divination lesson was horrid, and Hermione shook her head in disgust over Professor Trelawney's explanation about palmistry. No one can control what their hands look like or where the creases form! And, of course, Trelawney just had to pick on Harry, as usual. She took no time in revealing to the class that Harry had the shortest life line she had ever seen. Hermione was tempted to make a comment along the lines of, "Well, of course it's short. Harry was supposed to die twelve years ago," or perhaps, "Harry's life line is misleading. He'll probably out live us all." She held her tongue and tried to keep her temper in check. She was still mad at Harry and Ron so she wouldn't say anything.

She was the first out the door when the lesson ended though, hurrying off to find a safe location in which to time-turn back for Arithmancy.

**oOoOo**

Hermione had to eat lunch. She couldn't avoid Ron and Harry at meals anymore, but at least there were more people around so she could hide in the crowd. She took a seat next to Ginny, half a table's length away from where Harry and Ron were sitting with Seamus and Dean. "Hi," Hermione said gloomily.

Ginny looked up. "Hey, Hermione. Why aren't you sitting with H-harry?"

Hermione liked Ginny for the most part, though her obsession with _the famous Harry Potter_ was a bit disturbing at times. "I'm not sitting with him or your brother because they're mad at me. And I don't want to impose myself upon the company of people who clearly don't want me around."

Ginny blinked in confusion. "This would make more sense if I knew what you were talking about."

"I'm sure if you ask Ron he'll tell you all about how 'bloody mental' I am," Hermione huffed, stabbing at her salad.

"Yeah, well Ron's a bit of a prat. And Harry is too if he sides with that idiot over you."

"Thanks, Ginny."

**oOoOo**

After lunch was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Lupin's classes were very good, as always, though Lupin was beginning to look a bit stressed. It was understandable, as the new moon was just about to start.

Hermione sat at the foot of a nearby suit of armor to repack her bag, thinking that Ron and Harry had already left ahead of her, but she was mistaken. She heard the boys' voices coming towards her.

"Professor Lupin still looks a bit ill, doesn't he?" said Ron. "What d'you reckon's the matter with him?"

Hermione couldn't keep herself from responding. "Tuh -"

Ron's head appeared from around the suit of armor. "And what are you tutting at us for?" he asked irritably.

"Nothing," Hermione said, trying to sound lofty. She gave up trying to get her bag closed, and focused instead on hoisting it onto her shoulder. She wished they hadn't found her. She wished she could've just kept her big mouth shut.

"Yes, you were," said Ron. "I said I wonder what's wrong with Lupin, and you -"

"Well, isn't it _obvious_?" Hermione said in a slightly hysterical voice. Harry and Ron could be so thick sometimes! Wasn't it _obvious_ that Lupin was a werewolf? Wasn't it _obvious_ that Hermione missed her friends? Wasn't it _obvious_ that she needed them, now more than ever? Wasn't it _obvious_ that she missed them? Wasn't it _obvious_ that she only turned in the Firebolt because she cared?

"If you don't want to tell us, don't," snapped Ron.

Hermione stared at Ron for a full three seconds. "Fine. If you can't figure it out, then you don't deserve to know," she said haughtily before marching off. _Don't look back. Don't break down._

As she turned the corner she could just hear Ron's resentful assertion. "She doesn't know. She's just trying to get us to talk to her again."

It was then that Hermione lost what control she still had and ran sobbing to the nearest bathroom.


	16. Crookshanks and Crying

Welcome to the list of my favorite people D. Taggert!

And cookies and milk for Smithback for reviewing chapter 15! You're right, by the way: Damn Ron! It's all his fault that Harry's not talking to Hermione too, you know. Without all his negativity Harry would probably have forgiven her in a few days after she explained herself. But we'll never know now. =D

On to the next chapter! Already? I know, I just posted one a few hours ago but inspiration struck and I had to get this written before I came to my senses. lol.

With this chapter I decided to try something new. I realized just how forgotten Crookshanks is and decided to expound on that idea a little bit. I warn you that this chapter is a little bit of a downer, as we join Hermione in a bit of her depression, but don't worry - Lupin is there to lend a handkerchief!

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Sixteen - Crookshanks and Crying**

Crookshanks was not just a cat. He was part kneazle, though his mistress didn't know that. He had taken a liking to her immediately, knowing that she was the one he would belong to, and that she was in need of protection. Unfortunately, she didn't think that way. She thought of him as 'just a cat'.

Crookshanks had been trying to prove to his mistress that her friend's "pet" wasn't really a rat. He still didn't really know what it was, but it definitely wasn't a rat. His mistress was too busy to realize this though, and Crookshanks had inadvertently made his mistress close up. She didn't pet him as often, and frequently took him places and forgot to bring him back into her living area. He didn't mind though. He had other things to do.

So far all of Crookshanks's attempts to retrieve the rat had failed. The other one of his mistress's friends was also on the look out. Crookshanks didn't realize that humans could be so dumb. They even had one of those loud annoying spinning things that whistled so loud it would be able to call dogs from London! Didn't they realize that it kept spinning and whistling because of that rat?

Crookshanks bounded outside to get away from the grumpy man's female cat. She called herself "Missus" and continually said how she had always wanted kittens, but had never found the right cat to settle down with. She could tell that he was part-kneazle and her hints were more than obvious. Crookshanks had been avoiding her ever since that awkward conversation.

The castle grounds were eerie at night, but the mysterious mood was perfect for a cat. Crookshanks enjoyed his midnight adventures, even though he knew his mistress would miss his presence while she slept. _If _she slept.

Crookshanks didn't understand much about humans in general, but even he knew that his mistress was up to something. He had observed her carefully enough to see that she was in multiple places at once, but he paid little attention. Time is irrelevant to a cat.

The full moon was high in the sky when Crookshanks reached the beating tree. It flailed around restlessly as if angered by the pale glowing orb in the sky. Crookshanks pounced on an invisible prey and waiting as a large dog's head rose between the roots of the whip-like branches. It nudged a knot on the trunk with its nose, causing the branches to still, and then emerged fully into the moonlight.

Crookshanks nodded in recognition, turning to lead the way into the shadows of the forest so that they could talk. Just like the rat, Crookshanks knew the dog wasn't really a dog, but unlike the rat, the dog could be trusted.

**oOoOo**

Hermione couldn't believe how much her school work was slipping due to her emotional state. She had gone back to crying herself to sleep at nights, but only after staying up late enough to be sure that the other girls were already asleep. She barely noticed that Crookshanks wasn't with her when she slept anymore, but that was probably because she had forgotten about him in her attempts to keep up appearances.

The workload was as heavy as ever, plus Hermione was still looking up information for Hagrid. As long as she could stay angry at Ron and Harry for being so dumb, she could focus. Once she went to bed though, she couldn't stop the anger from being replaced by loneliness.

She didn't find the time to have tea with Professor Lupin again. The full moon had been during the first week back from break, and since then, she had been too busy to stop by. She also felt weak for relying on him over Christmas break, so she went to Hagrid instead. She spent part of her Friday afternoons (when they got out of class early) at his hut, drinking tea and explaining the research she had found for him. Sometimes she would just stare into her tea, not really listening as Hagrid talked about Buckbeak and his insecurities as a teacher.

**oOoOo**

By the end of January, Hermione was no longer bothering to keep up her appearances. She didn't care that her hair looked even more unkempt than usual or that her clothes always looked like she had slept in them (because she probably had). She didn't care that she looked sick or that the bags under her eyes from crying herself to sleep every night made her look like a zombie. She had given up carrying about herself, because no one else did. So she did what she was best at. She held her head high and continued striving to be the best, by going out of her way to do extra on everything.

She had it all worked out. She got Professor McGonagall's permission to use the empty Transfiguration classroom each night from seven to ten o'clock, then she would time turn back three hours and continue studying in the commonroom where everyone could see her. Every night without fail she did this, putting all her energy into her work to avoid her emotions.

**oOoOo**

It was Friday, January 30th, when Hermione was able to talk to Professor Lupin again. As he had predicted, he found her asleep in the empty transfiguration classroom at a little after eight o'clock. Her pillow of the evening was her essay on Undetectable Poisons for Professor Snape.

Lupin sat down in the student desk next to Hermione and leaned across the aisle. "Psst, Hermione," he whispered.

"Hmm?" she mumbled.

"I forgot to finish my potions essay. I still need three inches. Can I see yours?" Lupin continued to whisper.

"It's your own fault you haven't finished, Harry, and I'm not going to let you copy," Hermione said as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. When she looked over at the person next to her she blinked and then frowned. "You're not Harry."

Lupin let out a low chuckle. "What gave it away: the scar, the glasses, or both since I don't have either?"

Hermione chuckled weakly. "Your hair's too neat," she said, ending her sentence in a stifled yawn.

"Knew I forgot something." Lupin peered at her intently. "Are you alright?"

"Of course I am," she snapped. "I mean, yes, professor," she amended. She hadn't meant to snap at a teacher.

"Hmm," was all Lupin said.

Hermione shifted nervously under his gaze, and avoided looking at his hazel eyes.

Lupin just sat quietly, patiently even.

Finally Hermione couldn't stand the silence any longer. "No, I'm not alright," she admitted, her lower lip trembling. Now that she had said it out loud it was hard to keep the tears at bay.

"What's the problem, then?" Lupin asked gently.

It was too much. Hermione broke down into sobs, blubbering about how Ron and Harry still weren't talking to her, how she felt like she had maybe taken on too much work, but that it wouldn't be so bad if Harry and Ron were still her friends. She babbled about how much she missed them, even if they were a bit thick, and most importantly how she felt so horrible for the whole mess. After that things became confused and she wasn't sure what she was saying anymore.

Lupin conjured a maroon handkerchief for her, and helpfully moved her essay out of the way of her falling tears so that Professor Snape wouldn't take marks off. He was at a loss for anything else he could do. If she were his daughter or niece, he would give her a hug, but that probably wasn't appropriate, so he remained at arms length from her. Truly most of her speech was incoherent, but at least she was confiding in him. He let her tears flow and her ramblings to cease before speaking. "I think you did the right thing," he said.

"Is it always so hard?" Hermione asked suddenly, staring at him with bloodshot eyes and a very red nose.

"Doing the right thing?"

Hermione nodded.

"Sometimes it's much harder."

Hermione gave a loud sniff.

"I think it's time you went to bed," Lupin added.

Hermione nodded and started cleaning up her things. Lupin watched as she neatly rolled up her essay and put it in a scroll holder, before loading her books into her over full bag. Hermione hoisted the bag over her shoulder and turned to leave. "Good night, professor."

"Good night, Hermione."

Hermione was halfway to the door when she stopped and looked back.

"Did you forget something?" Lupin asked her.

"Your handkerchief," she said, holding it out to show him, but still clutching it tightly.

"Why don't you keep it."

And with a final, "Thank you, sir. Good night," she was gone.

Lupin sighed to himself and mumbled, "Good night... Hermione."


	17. Cats, Rats, and Broomsticks

Ok, I thought long and hard about this. It took me almost four whole seconds to decide that I would count and list every single person who has reviewed or added me to their favorites list. Here we go.

**Thank you to:**

CandyMaria92, StarReader2009, Aerianna Lupin, nette91, nyny421, Permenantly Lost in Thought, Will Love Ever Come, MapleandPhoenixFeather, Christina Akin, Wolfie22, Isabella97, ImaBiteChu, MaxximusPrime, candokid1, Charlie300895, SaikaHan, Sakurablossom142, Jous, Lady Weskter, Fionn Rose, Charlie McKay, Wolfwarriorgirl, LauRawrCait, BookLoverAF, Bucklerbri, Alice Hathaway, kk1999, fieryxgirl, immyownsuperman, Thegoddessgirl, Smithback, Green Armadillo-ette, D. Taggert, **and new people - **Emerald Alitrex and Lotus Elixir!

Wow! 35 people!

I think I need to make more cookies. =D

My sincere apologies for any gramatical errors or "think-o's" in my chapters. I'm trying my best to catch them, but sometimes I just don't realize. (Think-o's are when you're thinking about one word but your fingers type a mother. lol.) I'm just glad that everyone's forgiving the few errors when they pop up, and I'll try to proofread a bit better next time.

I'm glad you all are enjoying my story. I'm very pleased with the response I'm getting, and though I would like more reviews (*hint hint*) I don't want to keep you lovely people waiting any longer than I have to, just to boost my ego.

Just a note for upcoming chapters, what do you think about narrating part two (once Hermione actually goes back in time) from Lupin's perspective?

I also want to apologize for the lateness of this chapter, but I got swamped with school, so I made up for it by making this chapter extra long. I also couldn't find a good spot to break either. lol.

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Seventeen - Cats, Rats and Broomsticks**

Crookshanks was very pleased with himself. His dog-who-wasn't-really-a-dog friend had finally managed to explain that he, and that "rat" were really humans in disguise. Crookshanks hadn't believed it until the dog turned into a man and back again. Then Crookshanks had needed a few minutes to come to terms with the revelation. When he finally accepted this, he asked about the wolf-man. The dog-man seemed reluctant to speak about that though, only assuring him that he wasn't pretending to be a wolf.

The dog-man then said that he needed the rat-man. The rat-man had wronged him and he intended to exact his revenge. The easiest way would be if he could get inside Crookshanks's mistress's living area. Crookshanks nodded - if he couldn't bring the rat-man out, he would let the dog-man in. Crookshanks said he would see what he could do.

**oOoOo**

Hermione didn't see Lupin the following week because of the new moon, but she survived. The second week of February was harder - Friday would be Valentine's Day. Hermione was finally at an age where that holiday was mightily depressing for any single girl, and doubly so for her because Hermione knew she wouldn't get anything. It was hard having two guys as her best friends, but not having them was much harder.

Thursday night, Hermione spent her three hours in Professor McGonagall's transfiguration classroom as usual. Then she time-turned back and made her way to Gryffindor tower. She passed Neville as he was exiting. "Hello, Neville," she said gloomily.

"Hi, Hermione, can't talk now. I think I left something in the library… or the Great Hall… or the bathroom." He was calling each added thought over his shoulder as he jogged down the corridor. Hermione turned to the portrait of Sir Cadogan, which had closed while she was watching Neville's retreating form.

"Good evening, fair maiden," the crazed knight said.

Hermione sighed, feeling hurt that no boy her own age would ever compliment her like that. "Oddsbodikins," she said.

"Cheer up, noble lady. The best is yet to come."

**oOoOo**

Hermione commandeered a corner of the common room for her studying. Everyone in Gryffindor tower knew who she was. In a way, she was more famous than Harry, because of her religious study habits. Most people avoided her because she had a tendency to snap at innocent people if they accidentally disturbed her.

She had been at her table for about ninety minutes and was just finishing her Muggle Studies essay ("Explain Why Muggles Need Electricity") when Harry and Ron came in through the portrait hole. Harry was carrying the Firebolt, and both his and Ron's faces were happily dazed. Hermione bit her lip to keep back tears as the whole common room crowded around the two boys to admire the broom. Instead of joining the crowd, she kept her head down to avoid their eyes and moved on to her next bit of homework: rune translation. Hermione didn't look up until she felt Harry and Ron's bodies approach the table.

"I got it back," said Harry, grinning at her and holding up the Firebolt.

"See, Hermione? There wasn't anything wrong with it!" said Ron.

Hermione flinched at Ron's ton, but held firm. "Well - there _might_ have been! I mean, at least you know now that it's safe!"

"Yeah, I suppose so," said Harry. Hermione watched the smile form as Harry looked at the broomstick. "I'd better put it upstairs -"

"I'll take it!" Ron said eagerly. As an after thought he added, "I've got to give Scabbers his rat tonic."

Ron took the Firebolt and, holding it as if it were made of glass, carried it away up the boys' staircase.

**oOoOo**

Scabbers (also known as Peter Pettigrew) wasn't stupid. He knew that Sirius Black was after him. He cursed himself for being in plain sight in that photo from Egypt. Pettigrew also knew that Black was an animagus, and that Lupin was teaching Defense. He also knew that Harry was now in possession of the map, and it was sheer dumb luck that Potter hadn't seen his name floating amidst the labels of all the other occupants of the school.

Peter had gotten himself into a real predicament.

That orange monster that the girl had bought was another problem altogether. What that thing was or why it also had something against him, Peter didn't know. He was running out of options, and it seemed like the only thing to do was stage his own death again and blame the cat. It would be the easiest solution, but would Black fall for it again? And where would Peter go? Black might be hiding anywhere on the grounds, and by running, Peter might be signing his own death sentence. Staying, on the other hand, wasn't an option. Black would soon find a way into the dorms, and Peter shuddered at the thought of actually dying... or worse, being revealed and sent to Azkaban.

**oOoOo**

A strangled yell echoed down the boys' staircase, causing the whole common room to fall silent and stare. Ron's hurried footsteps grew louder and louder as he thundered down the stairs, finally leaping into view dragging a bed sheet.

"LOOK!" he bellowed, striding over to Hermione's table. "LOOK!" he yelled, shaking the sheets in her face.

"Ron, what -?"

"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!"

Hermione was completely bewildered. Maybe she was over tired, but she couldn't understand what the bed sheet had to do with Ron's rat. So to give herself more room to think, she leaned away, trying to find something to focus on. What was that red stuff on the sheet?

"BLOOD!" Ron yelled into the stunned silence. "HE'S GONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?"

"N-no," said Hermione in a trembling voice.

Ron threw several long, ginger cat hairs onto Hermione's rune translation.

At first Hermione was confused. Then she blinked. "You think Crookshanks -?"

"THAT CAT HAS BEEN AFTER SCABBERS SINCE DAY ONE!" Ron bellowed, flinging the sheet down behind him on the floor.

Hermione was getting mad. "You're just prejudice because he jumped on your head. Those hairs might have been there since Christmas," she snapped, standing up to argue properly.

"I'M TELLING YOU YOUR CAT KILLED HIM!"

"How do you know? Did you look under your bed? Did you check to see if Scabbers was somewhere else in the room?"

Hermione and Ron were recalled to the presence of an audience when Harry cleared his throat. The entire common room had so far been completely quiet while watching this scene.

"Hermione," Harry began. "Ron just said that Scabbers was gone."

"He didn't say he had actually looked around the rest of the room," Hermione snapped, upset that Harry had to butt his way into her argument.

"I LOOKED EVERYWHERE I COULD THINK OF!" Ron insisted.

"Well, maybe you missed some place."

Ron was beet red in the face and was shaking with repressed anger. Harry was expecting a bit of accidental magic to come spilling forth from his friend any minute.

"The dorm's not that big. I agree with Ron. I think the evidence is fairly obvious. I mean, look at the blood," Harry said.

Hermione's shoulders shook. "Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she responded shrilly. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone!" And with that she turned and bolted up the girls' stairs, not managing to conceal the tears flowing down her face.

**oOoOo**

Crookshanks thought he had been very clever. He had managed to get a list of the funny words that the humans used to safeguard their living area, and had taken it to the dog-man. The dog-man was thrilled.

**oOoOo**

_So far so good_. Pettigrew had faked his death by leaving blood on the sheets. Biting himself had been painful, but he reminded himself that this pain was temporary. He had gotten over the loss of his finger, hadn't he? But where should he hide?

Peter was getting paranoid. He never ventured into an area that didn't have at least three escape roots, and he was always on the look out for _that_ cat. _As well as owls, and other cats, and feet..._ He had never realized just how dangerous being a rat really was without a human to look out for him.

**oOoOo**

Hermione woke up Friday morning with a headache and remembered the scene from the previous night. Maybe she should have kept a closer eye on Crookshanks, seeing as, even now, she had no idea where he might be. Maybe Ron and Harry were right. But then again, maybe they were wrong. She knew that Crookshanks seemed to have developed a ... _taste_ for Scabbers (oh, how she shuddered at the thought) but she still couldn't believe her cat would have killed the rat. Or if he had, he would have left the body in the sheets as well. That's what cats did, right?

Hermione shook her head and decided she wasn't going to think like that. She refused to believe Scabbers was dead and that was that. The castle was full of places for a rat to hide in. He could be anywhere.

Hermione dressed quickly, went to gather up all her homework from where she had left it on the table in the common room, and then hurried to breakfast and the abysmal day that awaited her.

Breakfast was the worst. No valentines. Nothing but Ron's angry glances down the table at her as he loudly pointed out all of Scabbers's favorite foods. Hermione forced down some toast and then left the table quickly, knowing she would pay for her lack of energy later.

She was completely heartbroken because she had thought that maybe finally, after over a month, that Harry and Ron would talk to her again. But no, she had traded one upset for something worse. And Ron was so stubborn! It was just like the conversation with Lavender's rabbit all over again. Logic was just lost on some people.

Hermione managed to get through her morning classes easily enough, but lunch was just as painful as breakfast. She overheard Fred, George, Ginny and Harry all trying to cheer Ron up, but they were being pretty insensitive, and Hermione still couldn't believe that no one thought to keep searching the school for Scabbers. He wasn't dead, after all. He couldn't be... Hermione kept her head down for the rest of the meal.

Her afternoon classes were a bit harder to live through (Potions, where Snape was constantly drawing attention to Harry, and Herbology, where they were grouped together with Ernie McMillian). Somehow she survived Herbology by sitting to Ernie's left and not saying anything the entire class period. After that, she ran straight to Hagrid's and didn't leave until dinner.

After dinner, Hermione went and did her three hours in the transfiguration classroom before turning back and doing only two hours in the common room. She had overheard Harry offering to let Ron fly the Firebolt after the quidditch practice and she didn't want to be there when they got back.

Crookshanks was no where in sight, and Hermione wondered what had become of him. Had he been let loose in the grounds? Or was there some other housing area for cats, like the owlery was for owls? She pulled the drapes closed around her bed and closed her eyes, trying not to cry, but the effort was in vain. She muffled the noise with her pillow when she heard the other girls enter the dorms, trying not to let anyone know... not that they would care. Eventually her thoughts gave way to dreams, and she slept.

**oOoOo**

Saturday morning, Hermione got up and dressed, leaving her school bag behind. She made her way to breakfast and was accosted by a visual sea of blue and red. She'd forgotten about the quidditch match: Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. Already there was a small mob around Harry and his broomstick, so Hermione was able to sit at the empty end of the table and eat in relative peace.

Breakfast on Saturdays ran until eleven, when the foods changed to lunch items, but Hermione didn't stay the whole time. She decided to get some air before the quidditch match (which would also be starting at eleven), and took a walk around the lake to clear her mind.

That was a bad decision. Instead of clearing her mind, it became much more cluttered. All the thoughts, hopes, fears, and everything else came whooshing in on Hermione again. She started crying again, marveling at how pathetic she was. This was worse than those first few months at the start of first year when she had no friends. She sat down on the wet grass (the snow had mostly been melted) and hiccoughed into the cold air.

She sat there for an hour, maybe two - she wasn't sure how long it had actually been - but eventually her tears had stopped and her mind had blissfully cleared. She only stood when she saw the rest of the school heading down to the pitch for the quidditch match.

**oOoOo**

Hermione was startled when she saw Harry cast something large and silvery down towards the ground. If she hadn't followed the silver stag's movement, she would never have even realized that there were dementors present. Wait a minute - those things weren't dementors! She was distracted by the whistle and the roars of cheers from the Gryffindor supporters signalling the match's end, but Hermione's brain was in overdrive. What was that thing Harry had cast? And where had he learned it? She got her answer when she saw Professor Lupin pull Harry aside and lead him over to the black hooded figures of Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint. How had Hermione not noticed that Harry was getting private lessons? And why hadn't professor Lupin mentioned them?

**oOoOo**

The after-party lasted the rest of the day and well into the night. Hermione went and got her school bag and realized that she had somehow missed the reading that was assigned for Muggle Studies. Irritated and anxious, she took up her usual position in the corner of the common room and tried to ignore the noise around her.

Sometime after eight, Harry wandered over to her. "Did you even come to the match?" he asked her.

"Of course I did," Hermione replied, her eyes trying to stay focused on the word she was on. She didn't like the implication in Harry's tone. "And I'm very glad we won, and I think you did really well, but I have to read this by Monday." _And you're not really talking to me, and I don't want to get my hopes up, and I want to ask you a million questions about the spell you shot at Malfoy, but I can't._

"Come on, Hermione, come and have some food," Harry coaxed, chancing a glance over his shoulder. Hermione could tell he was looking at Ron.

Hermione hiccoughed and said, "I can't, Harry. I've still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!" She paused to try to keep her emotions in check. "Besides, _he_ doesn't want me to join in."

Ron, having seen Harry standing by Hermione, chose that moment to say loudly, "If Scabbers hadn't just been _eaten_, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies. He used to really like them -"

Hermione burst into tears, tucked her book under her arm, and ran up the stairs to the girls' dormitories and out of sight. She ran straight to her bed and spent another night crying herself to sleep.


	18. Sirius Apologies

**Permenant Thank you List**

**Thank you to:**

CandyMaria92, StarReader2009, Aerianna Lupin, nette91, nyny421, Permenantly Lost in Thought, Will Love Ever Come, MapleandPhoenixFeather, Christina Akin, Wolfie22, Isabella97, ImaBiteChu, MaxximusPrime, candokid1, Charlie300895, SaikaHan, Sakurablossom142, Jous, Lady Weskter, Fionn Rose, Charlie McKay, Wolfwarriorgirl, LauRawrCait, BookLoverAF, Bucklerbri, Alice Hathaway, kk1999, fieryxgirl, immyownsuperman, Thegoddessgirl, Smithback, Green Armadillo-ette, D. Taggert, Emerald Alitrex, and Lotus Elixir!

**Current Count: 35 fans**

Thank you SaikaHan for your chapter 17 review! All I have to say is that boys are stupid, and right now, Ron is one of the stupidest. But he's hurt, and he's dealing with it in the only way possible: blaming someone else. Unfortunately, Hermione's just setting herself up to be a target. And Ron does have a point - she's not showing any remorse about Scabbers's "death" and won't admit that she's wrong.

Read, review, enjoy! =)

Disclaimer: Like every other fanfic writer, I bow to the genius that is J.K. Rowling

**Chapter Eighteen - Sirius Apologies**

"AAAARRRRGGGGHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Hermione jolted awake. What was that? She fumbled with the hangings around her bed and noticed Lavender and Parvati peeking curiously out of their beds as well. Hermione jumped up, grabbed her pink bathrobe and matching slippers, and headed down to the common room where other students were congregating. She could hear Harry's voice.

"Are you _sure_ you weren't dreaming, Ron?"

"I'm telling you, I saw him!"

_Saw who?_ Hermione wondered. More people were showing up, including Percy Weasley, the head boy.

"Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed! Everyone back upstairs!" Percy ordered.

"Perce - Sirius Black! In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"

Hermione let out a little gasp as the common room went very still.

"Nonsense!" said Percy, looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron - had a nightmare -"

"I'm telling you -"

"Now, really, enough's enough!"

Professor McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait behind her as she entered the common room and stared furiously around.

"I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"

"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" said Percy, puffing himself up indignantly. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare -"

"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"

Professor McGonagall stared at Ron. Everyone else in the common room had been watching the exchange very intently, their heads swivelling in the direction of the person speaking. Everyone was currently watching Professor McGonagall's face as they waited for her reaction.

"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley," she finally said. "How could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"

"Ask him!" Ron said, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw -"

Glaring suspiciously at Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the portrait back open and went outside. The whole common room listened with bated breath.

"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?"

"Certainly, good lady!" cried Sir Cadogan.

There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the common room.

"You - you _did_?" said Professor McGonagall. "But - but the password!"

"He had 'em!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"

Hermione clapped her hand to her mouth. Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk.

"Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy-slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air.

"Detention, Mr. Longbottom! And one hundred points from Gryffindor! You're also banned from all future Hogsmeade visits until... until I say so! And since you have such a hard time remembering passwords, I will remove that burden from you. You will not be allowed to know the password! From now on you will have to wait until someone else opens the portrait for you!" McGonagall pointed around at the rest of the Gryffindors and added, "You are forbidden from giving Longbottom the password. Is that clear?"

"Yes, professor," the group said.

McGonagall nodded sharply. "I have to inform the head master. No one is to the leave this tower until I come back!" She headed out the portrait hole, and everyone could just hear her say, "And Sir Cadogan, you're fired!" before the portrait swung shut.

**oOoOo**

No one in the common room slept. Everyone crowded together, as far away from the portrait hole as they could, the older students protecting the younger ones. Hermione huddled alone in a corner, and Neville was being given a three-foot radius as if he were contagious.

The next few hours passed in un-rhythmic leaps. Hermione was afraid to blink, in case Ron or Harry were to be suddenly dead.

McGonagall reappeared at dawn to tell them that Sirius Black had escaped again and to escort them all down to the Great Hall.

**oOoOo**

Outside the tower, people began talking more freely. As soon as everyone had food in front of them, their spirits rose and nearly everyone started talking about what happened. Many people crowded around Ron and wanted to hear what happened in detail. Hermione merely tried to get her stomach to settle. Even though things had been shaky between them, Hermione was completely distraught with worry for her friends. She couldn't just sit and eat, she was about to go crazy! So she broke another school rule and slipped out the front doors and ran to Hagrid's.

Her frantic knocking was met by a bleary-eyed Hagrid in his shirt-sleeves. "Hermione? Wassa matter?"

Hermione broke down completely and sobbed. Hagrid welcomed her inside and started making tea as Hermione choked out the whole story again, beginning with the Firebolt and ending with last night's attack. Hagrid made tea, and sat patiently through the whole story, trying not to say anything he wasn't supposed to. Hermione eventually fell asleep from exhaustion in Hagrid's arm chair, so he picked her up and carried her up to the hospital wing to get some rest. He didn't think she'd appreciate waking up in Gryffindor Tower just yet.

**oOoOo**

The dog-man was angry. The rat-man had escaped again. Crookshanks cocked an ear. The rat-man always slept in the red-haired boy's bed. The dog-man said he wasn't there. Crookshanks was confused. He offered to find out what happened.

**oOoOo**

Hermione awoke in the hospital wing, late that afternoon. She was a bit disoriented, but Madam Pomfrey explained that Hagrid had brought her there when she fell asleep. Hermione nodded vaguely and started picking at the food on the tray in front of her.

"How long have I been here?"

"About seven hours," Madam Pomfrey replied. "I know about the incident in Gryffindor Tower, so you're welcome to sleep here again tonight if you wish."

Hermione nodded. "I think I'd also like a sleeping draught, please. I really would like to avoid having nightmares."

Madam Pomfrey nodded. "Just come back here at curfew and I'll get you all set up. I also suggest grabbing your book bag and clothes for tomorrow."

Hermione nodded and went to get her things.

**oOoOo**

Crookshanks conversed with a few of the cat familiars in the school portraits to see if any of them knew what happened to the rat-man. Apparently, he had disappeared. Most believed he was dead because of the blood on the sheets. Crookshanks told his findings to the dog-man, but the dog-man didn't think the rat-man was dead. He was probably just hiding, but the question of where remained.

**oOoOo**

Monday passed without incident. The sleeping draught from Madam Pomfrey seemed to work wonders on Hermione. She felt alert and refreshed and didn't have a single break down all day.

Hermione also managed to get through most of Tuesday without incident until Ron and Harry entered the common room that night at nine o'clock.

"Hogsmeade, next weekend!" said Ron. "What d'you reckon?" he added quietly.

"Well, Filch hasn't done anything about the passage into Honeydukes..." Harry said, even more quietly.

Hermione was outraged. "Harry!" she hissed, moving some of her books out of her way so she could see her two former friends. "Harry, if you go into Hogsmeade again... I'll tell Professor McGonagall about that map!"

"Can you hear someone talking, Harry?" growled Ron.

Hermione's eyes began to water. "Ron, how can you let him go with you? After what Sirius Black nearly did to _you_! I mean it, I'll tell -"

"So now you're trying to get Harry expelled!" said Ron furiously. "Haven't you done enough damage this year?"

Hermione hadn't thought she could get much lower, but she suddenly found new depths to the hole in her chest. Couldn't Ron see that this was just the Firebolt scenario all over again? That just because it hadn't proved dangerous yet, didn't mean it wasn't dangerous? And why was Ron so calm about nearly being killed?

She opened her mouth to respond, but with soft hiss, Crookshanks leapt onto her lap. Hermione took one frightened look at the expression on Ron's face, gathered up Crookshanks, and hurried away towards the girls' dorms.

**oOoOo**

Wednesday night, Lupin found Hermione asleep in the transfiguration classroom again. He chuckled to himself and tried to think of a good way to wake her up this time. He was deciding between making a loud noise or tickling her nose with a feather til she woke herself up, when he noticed that her whimpering. Clearly she was having a nightmare, and that took precedence over his own amusement.

He pulled out his wand and was about to cast _Ennervate_, when Hermione suddenly jerked her head upright, her eyes frantic. When she saw him standing over her, wand in hand, she cringed and drew back.

Lupin hastily put his wand down, and kneeled beside her, reaching out and placing a hand on her upper back. "Shh, Hermione. Calm down. You were having a nightmare. It's alright."

Hermione glanced back at Professor Lupin to see concern in his expression. "Oh, professor!" she cried, flinging herself into his arms for a hug and crying hysterically.

Lupin patted her awkwardly. He didn't have any problems with the contact, personally, but teacher/student guidelines prohibited such familiarity. Hermione seemed to come to her senses, and let go, her tear-streaked face showing humiliation. "I'm sorry, sir," she sniffled quietly.

"It's fine. Sometimes a good hug is necessary, and I'm sorry I can't give you one."

Hermione nodded and started fishing around in her bag. She brought out the maroon handkerchief that Lupin had conjured for her on their previous encounter and dabbed at her face.

"Anything you want to talk to me about?" Lupin asked after a moment.

Hermione shook her head, then nodded, then shook her head again. Where would she start!

"Buckbeak's trial is this weekend," she finally said.

"I understand you've been helping Hagrid prepare. He's extremely grateful for all your help."

Hermione nodded. "And the Hogsmeade trip is this weekend, too." She paused, and Lupin waited. "Neville can't go. And I don't think I want to go, either."

Lupin frowned. Harry wasn't allowed in Hogsmeade either, but he assumed that, due to Hermione's purposeful avoidance of his name, they weren't back on friendly terms yet.

"I'm sure Neville would appreciate the company."

Hermione nodded vaguely again. "I think Ron's been trying to convince Harry to sneak into Hogsmeade," she said. "I'm worried."

"Don't worry," Lupin said, trying to hide his unease. "Harry won't be able to sneak into Hogsmeade."

**oOoOo**

Hermione was not reassured by Lupin's confident statement because she knew better. Harry had the Marauder's Map and an invisibility cloak. She was sure that he would go to Hogsmeade, and she prayed that he wouldn't get into any trouble.

She had said goodnight to professor Lupin and made her way back to Gryffindor Tower, finding Neville standing outside the portrait, being glared at by the Fat Lady's security trolls. She whispered the password for them both, and followed him in. Maybe Ron was right. Maybe she should just mind her own business. So for the rest of the week, that's what she did.

**oOoOo**

On Saturday morning, Hermione decided to stay in bed until after everyone left for Hogsmeade. She didn't want to go, and she didn't want to witness Harry's stupidity. She ended up staying in bed until two o'clock before venturing back to the common room to work on homework. She found Neville sitting by himself, apparently doing homework as well.

"Hi, Neville," she said.

"Hi, Hermione, I thought you'd be in Hogsmeade," Neville responded cheerfully.

Hermione shook her head. "I didn't feel very well. What are you working on?"

"Lupin's vampire essay."

"Need any help?"

"That'd be great, thanks. I can always count on you, Hermione."

**oOoOo**

Hermione helped Neville finish his essay, smiling for the first time in... forever. Neville was so sweet, but Hermione missed Harry and Ron. Neville always seemed to need someone to help him with everything, and it was a little trying sometimes. Indeed, after they finished the vampire essay, Neville asked for help with his transfiguration essay. Hermione was spared from answering when an owl rapped on the window.

Hermione jumped up to let it in, and was surprised when it landed on her pile of books, waiting for her to remove her letter. Neville, thinking the letter for was him, reached out to collect it and was met by the bird's beak nipping his fingers. "Ow!"

"I think it's for me, Neville." Hermione untied the scroll of parchment and read it. "I'm sorry, Neville," she said after a moment. "I won't be able to help you any more right now. I need to find Harry and Ron."

**oOoOo**

Hermione paced outside the portrait hole, ignoring the grunts from the security trolls. She was pacing to keep from crying again, anxiously awaiting Harry and Ron's return from Hogsmeade. She saw them before they saw her, and she hurried towards them.

Ron glared at her. "Come to have a good gloat?" he snarled savagely. "Or have you just been to tell on us?"

Hermione gaped at him. Now what had she done? "N-no," she said, holding Hagrid's letter in her hand, her lip trembling.

Ron snorted. "Yeah, right."

Hermione looked from Ron to Harry. "Something happen?"

Ron looked at his shoes and muttered. Harry said, "I got caught. You were right, Hermione, I never should have tried sneaking into Hogsmeade. You can rub it in later. What were you going to tell us?"

"I just you ought to know... Hagrid lost his case. Buckbeak is going to be executed." She took a breath and held out the letter. "He - he sent me this."

Harry took it from her and he and Ron both read it at the same time. "They can't do this," said Harry. "They can't. Buckbeak isn't dangerous."

"Malfoy's dad frightened the Committee into it," said Hermione, wiping her eyes. "You know what he's like. They're a bunch of doddery old fools, and they were scared. There'll be an appeal, though, there always is. Only I can't see any hope... Nothing will have changed."

"Yeah, it will," said Ron fiercely. "You won't have to do all the work alone this time, Hermione. I'll help."

"Oh, Ron!"

Hermione flung her arms around Ron's neck and broke down completely. She vaguely realized that maybe Harry would've been a better one to get a hug from. Ron patted her awkwardly on the top of her head until she pulled away.

"Ron, I'm really, really, sorry about Scabbers..."

"Oh - well - he was old," said Ron. "And he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get me an owl now."

Hermione cracked a watery smile, feeling like everything would soon be back to normal.

**A/N: In the book, Hermione went to breakfast on the morning of the Hogsmeade trip and shot glares at Harry and Ron the entire time. I didn't think that fit with the emotional state I contrived for her so I took it out.**


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